FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky has become the first state to require many of its Medicaid recipients to work to receive coverage, part of an unprecedented change to the nation’s largest health insurance program under the Trump administration.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced the approval on Friday. The change will require adults between the ages of 19 and 64 to complete 80 hours per month of “community engagement” to keep their coverage. That includes getting a job, going to school, taking a job training course or community service.
It’s a big change for Kentucky, a state that just four years ago embraced former President Barack Obama’s health care law under a previous Democratic governor who won praise for posting some of the largest insurance coverage gains in the country.
But Republican Gov. Matt Bevin said while more Kentuckians have insurance, it is not making them healthier.
Kentucky, along with the rest of Appalachia, still falls behind the rest of the country in 33 out of 41 population health indicators, according to a recent study . Bevin said he believes his program, with its emphasis on work and community service, will encourage people to be healthier.
“There is dignity associated with earning the value of something that you receive,” Bevin said. “The vast majority of men and women, able-bodied men and women … they want the dignity associated with being able to earn and have engagement.”
photo of some other folks enjoying the “dignity associated with having engagement.”
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