The Register's editorial

Here we go again. Republicans controlling the Iowa Legislature are revisiting the idea of imposing a “work requirement” on Medicaid recipients. The latest GOP rationale for making government health insurance contingent on employment: It could ease the state’s worker shortage.

Heaven help us if elected officials really believe that is the answer for boosting Iowa's labor pool.

Yet House Speaker Linda Upmeyer, R-Clear Lake, recently floated this logic during an interview with Radio Iowa as justification for a new mandate on the poorest Iowans.

“Certainly we’re not suggesting that people who are unable to work should, somehow, work. That’s not the point,” she said, “but when we do have able-bodied adults that could work, we frankly need them in the workforce.”

Upmeyer should elaborate on how much she thinks a work requirement will increase the size of Iowa’s workforce. Because the “most common” Medicaid beneficiary in Iowa is a 9-year-old child, according to the Iowa Department of Human Services.

In fact, nearly 60 percent of the program's enrollees are children. They are not going to start punching the clock at a convenience store or factory farm. Neither are the additional 25 percent of enrollees who are disabled or elderly adults.

That leaves only 16 percent of Medicaid beneficiaries in this state who are adults and also not categorized as disabled or elderly. Many of them already work. They earn so little they still qualify for government health insurance.

Nationally, nearly 60 percent of the 25 million nondisabled adults ages 19 to 64 enrolled in Medicaid are working. About 80 percent of beneficiaries are in families with at least one worker, and the adult who is not employed is frequently taking care of children.

The work-requirement-to-address-labor-shortage baloney is the GOP justification du jour for a misguided idea. Last legislative session, Sen. Tom Greene, R-Burlington, sponsored a bill directing DHS to seek federal approval to impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients — something the agency does not need legislative approval to do — because “the best result from a state welfare program is the number of citizens who remove themselves from assistance,” he said.

Medicaid is not a welfare program. It is a health insurance program that allows people to access medication and medical care — the very thing some need to be healthy enough to hold a job.

If you are mentally ill, prescription drugs may be the key to maintaining employment. People suffering from chronic pain, shortness of breath, depression, diabetes, drug addiction or numerous other problems need health care in order to pursue opportunities, including education and employment.

Requiring Iowans to have a job to secure health care is not sound policy. It will usher precious few toward a job. It will result in more paperwork and hoops for low-income people already struggling to navigate the maze of privatized Medicaid.

If Iowa’s part-time lawmakers, most of whom enjoy taxpayer-funded health insurance, are really concerned about this state’s labor shortage, they should focus on welcoming immigrants. They should not pursue more bureaucratic barriers to prevent their constituents from seeing a doctor.