Photo: ahrq.gov
The White House announced approval of a work requirement for Medicaid recipients, yet most already work. Why? The Kaiser Family Family found in 2016 that 59 % of Medicaid patients already work:
Source: The Kaiser Family Foundation – 2016
So of the 41 % not working who is going to work? The Administration said those that are disabled, ill, in school or caregiving will not be required to work or provide community service. Does that mean that those that are retired will be required to find work? Only 8 % said they could not find work. We view this as the beginning of an effort to cut down the rolls and thus the costs of Medicaid. Instead of being viewed as a welfare program, Medicaid should be viewed as medical insurance. We don’t ask Medicare enrollees to work, and private insurers don’t ask for patients to work.
Next Steps:
Enroll US citizens into healthcare insurance at the time of birth (our blog in depth), establishing a healthcare account with Medicare for all. The idea of insurance is that we establish a large pool of 360 million people, to spread the costs of the sick along with the well, so that when the well get sick they will have services that don’t cost an unreasonable amount. The health insurers have somehow talked the American public into the idea that they get to cream off the well pool from the sick one (which is more expensive) and then sock it to people that are sick. That is just plan wrong.