State appeals Biden administration’s rejection of Ohio Medicaid work requirements
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, a Republican, is appealing a decision by the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden to nix Ohio’s Medicaid work requirements.
The appeal was requested by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, who announced it Thursday morning.
Yost is pursing an administrative appeal at the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. CMS made the decision Aug. 10 to halt the state’s work requirements - which never started, having been delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.
Under Ohio’s work requirement plan, approved by the administration of Republican former President Donald Trump in 2019, Ohio Medicaid recipients who received coverage under Medicaid expansion were to work 80 hours a month.
The state’s plan had exemptions from working, including for caregivers of minor children, those who experienced physical or mental frailty, and people in college, career training or a GED program, among others.
But the Biden administration rejected the work requirements, saying that although the federal government can permit special programs that go outside the bounds of how Medicaid is set up, they must “promote the statutory objectives of Medicaid.”
Ohio’s work requirements plan did not, it said, because it was likely that people were going to be kicked off Ohio Medicaid rolls. The federal government noted the multiple, well-documented, years’ long problems with the system that enrolls people on Medicaid and other social services.
But DeWine disagrees with that conclusion.
“Removing a provision that says a healthy, able-bodied individual should be working, looking for work, participating in job training, or participating in a recovery program in order to receive free taxpayer-funded healthcare is contrary to Ohioans’ values,” DeWine said in a statement. “Eliminating reasonable requirements discourages people from becoming self-sufficient and only reinforces government dependency. Ohio’s program would offer assistance when Ohioans need it, while providing opportunities for future success.”