/Mississippi may impose work requirements on Medicaid beneficiaries

Mississippi may impose work requirements on Medicaid beneficiaries

According to a Thursday article in The New York Times, Seema Verma is the administrator for the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. She was responding to Medicaid officials from 10 states who wanted to test requirements for work or other forms of community engagement. These 10 states include Arizona, Arkansas and Indiana, Kansas. Kentucky, Maine. New Hampshire. North Carolina. Utah, Wisconsin, and Kentucky. The state Division of Medicaid confirmed Thursday that Mississippi had also requested a waiver of work requirements in December. This request is currently being considered by the federal centers. Governor. Phil Bryant praised the move as possibly helping Mississippi’s population. “I have asked for a workforce requirement from the Center of Medicaid/Medicare Services. This is not a punitive measure aimed at recipients, as some might have you believe. Bryant stated that it will help these people reap the benefits of a job well done and eventually receive health care coverage through their employer, not the federal or state governments. A workforce requirement would effectively eliminate a whole category of Medicaid beneficiaries. Medicaid is available to more than 700,000. Approximately 56 percent of these are children. The remaining 37 percent are elderly, pregnant or disabled. The work requirement would not affect any of these groups. The work requirement would instead affect low-income parents and caretakers who make up 7 percent of Medicaid beneficiaries. This would mean that there are approximately 50,000 beneficiaries. However, caretakers who take care of children and other people who can’t be left alone will be exempted from this requirement, further reducing the number. A person must have a minimum of $306 in monthly income to be eligible for Medicaid in Mississippi. This waiver would require that beneficiaries in this category work at least 20 hours per week. These recipients are ineligible for a minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, which equals $580 per month. Recipients who don’t work will lose their eligibility status._x000D