Medicaid rolls set to be slashed under Trump-approved work rules

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/medicaid-rolls-set-to-be-slashed-under-trump-approved-work-rules/ar-BBNiBYA?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout

The thousands of people who lost Medicaid coverage this month in Arkansas for not following newly implemented work requirements may be a sign of what's to come in other GOP-led states.

Indiana and New Hampshire are slated to implement their Medicaid work requirements next year, and a slew of other states are awaiting approval from the Trump administration.

Arkansas has served as a test case of sorts since it was the first state to implement work requirements, and this month it became the first state to kick off beneficiaries for not following them.

The state removed more than 4,000 people from the Medicaid rolls, with some estimates saying that number could climb to 50,000 when the requirements are fully implemented in 2019.

"I think other states should be thinking seriously about the warnings that Arkansas' experience has for their states," said Erin Brantley, a senior research associate at George Washington University's Milken Institute of Public Health.

While many people in Arkansas' program are exempt from reporting their activities to the state because they're already working, others are not, meaning they need to file monthly reports through an online portal to show they are meeting the requirements.