West Virginia and Wyoming Reject Harmful Work Requirements for People with Medicaid

Last Thursday, lawmakers in Wyoming and West Virginia rejected proposals to impose a work requirement on people who get their health insurance through Medicaid.

Meanwhile, Kentucky's Senate President and Speaker of the House are co-sponsoring House Bill 3, a bill that (among other things), would codify into law the needless and harmful work requirement Governor Bevin is trying to impose through changes to Kentucky's Medicaid program scheduled to start April 1. (KEJC is co-counseling a legal challenge to the Trump Administration's approval of Bevin's plan with the Southern Poverty Law Center and National Health Law Program. Oral arguments are scheduled for March 14 at 11:00 a.m. in Washington D.C.)

Lawmakers in Wyoming get it:

“Let’s not create other cliffs or booby-traps,” Wyoming House Republican leader, Eric Barlow, said, opposing the bill. “This isn’t welfare–this is health care. This is creating room for people to be physically and mentally well in their community. That is why this is different.”

George Washington University health policy professor, Leighton Ku, estimates that between 86,000 and 136,000 Kentuckians could lose health insurance in the first year if Governor Bevin implements his changes on April 1.

Please:

Call 1-800-372-7181.

This is the KY legislature's hotline. If you don't know who your legislator is, that's okay: they'll help you! Ask them to tell your Representative that you oppose HB 3 and imposing barriers to health care generally.

1-800-372-7181

If Wyoming and West Virginia lawmakers can understand that work requirements hurt people, so can Kentucky's.

Our lawmakers ought to be filing legislation to prevent Bevin from implementing his wasteful, dangerous plan instead of codifying it into law.

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This post based on a series of tweets available here:

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Photo by Seattle Municipal Archives Digital Collections, via Creative Commons license.