ARK MEDICAID WORK REQUIREMENT - An effort to keep Arkansas' Medicaid expansion failed Friday in the state House, leaving the future of coverage uncertain for thousands of low-income residents two days after a judge blocked the state's work requirement on the program. The majority-Republican House voted 52-28 in favor of the budget bill for Medicaid and the expansion program, nearly two dozen votes shy of the 75 needed in the 100-member chamber to send the legislation to GOP Gov. Asa Hutchinson. The vote came after a federal judge on Wednesday blocked Medicaid work requirements in Arkansas and Kentucky. Gov Hutchinson told NPR what Arkansas will do next.
"We are going to appeal the decision because we
believe in the fundamental principal of a work requirement, a community engagement requirement," explained Hutchinson."And we're going to ask a higher court to review that and ask the Justice Department to handle that."
Arkanasas was the first state to enforce the work requirement after the Trump administration allowed states to tie Medicaid coverage to work. More than 18,000 Arkansans lost Medicaid coverage last year.
