WASHINGTON – Thousands of low-income Michiganders who are already working or otherwise trying to find work could see their health insurance seized under a program approved by the Trump administration and set to be implemented in the state, a public policy group said Thursday.

The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a Washington group that advocates for policies that help low-income Americans, released a report saying that another state that has implemented work requirements for certain Medicaid recipients, as Michigan is set to do next year, has seen nearly 17,000 people lose coverage — many apparently because of bureaucratic red tape associated with the program.

The group said that in Arkansas the 17,000 people who have lost coverage under the new policy since it went into effect last year is more than the number predicted to lose coverage. The main reason appears to be problems associated with reporting hours worked monthly through an online portal or jumping through the numerous bureaucratic hoops required to secure an exemption.

Under Arkansas’s program, certain Medicaid recipients under the age of 50 who are considered able-bodied must report 80 hours of work or work-search activity unless they fall under certain exemptions, such as being a full-time student, medically frail or living with a dependent child.

In late December, the Trump administration approved Michigan’s earlier request, signed into law by former Gov. Rick Snyder, to put in place a program that requires people on the state’s Medicaid expansion program, Healthy Michigan, to meet similar requirements or apply for exemptions to keep their coverage beginning Jan. 1, 2020.

Michigan became one of seven states, along with Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire and Wisconsin to receive permission to put in place such a program. Several other states have applications pending.

According to some estimates, more than 500,000 of the approximately 655,000 people in the Michigan program could fall under the reporting requirement, meaning that thousands who could otherwise meet the requirement or be exempted will have to regularly and consistently report their activities or, after three months, lose their health care coverage for at least a month.

New Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat who opposed the change, said she’ll follow the law in implementing the program but has said she will do all she can to ensure that people have every chance to report their situations in ways that meet their needs.

While Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, has said that his state’s program seems to be working in the way it was intended, CBPP experts said the program is unworkable given that too many Medicaid recipients have part-time or other working situations that may not meet the 80-hour-per-month requirement; face personal circumstances or illnesses that make regular reporting difficult, or lack communications or Internet access or simply misunderstand the rules.

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The report said, "Some have asked whether work requirements can be 'fixed' — in other words, whether such policies can be implemented without unintended consequences and with positive impacts on employment. The answer is no."

“This is a major red alert for Michigan,” said Gilda Jacobs, president and CEO of the Michigan League for Public Policy, an advocacy group that opposed the program change. “We’ve warned lawmakers for a year that this was a reprehensible, costly and mean-spirited policy, and now we have proof out of Arkansas. Unfortunately, the cost is a human one.”

“A lot of folks are working, but they’re in jobs that don’t have consistent hours,” Jacobs continued. “In the service industry for example — especially in northern Michigan during the off-season — people often have volatile schedules that are dependent on forces outside their control. Now they could lose access to health care when they’re doing everything they can to work. It’s a shortsighted plan that’s going to cost Michigan in the long run.”

Contact Todd Spangler: 703-854-8947 or tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @tsspangler.

