Medicaid Work Requirements

Posted onAuthorSeth Trueger, MD, MPH

I am a practicing emergency physician, and I have taken care of patients in a number of contexts — private (for profit and nonprofit), public, and VA emergency departments. Additionally, I completed a fellowship in health policy which included working in the US House of Representatives.
Medicaid work requirements are a very bad idea that will hurt citizens as well as health care providers. The overwhelming majority of Medicaid enrollees who do not work have good reason not to — they are disabled, retired, in school, unable to find work, or taking care of family members. Adding work requirements simply adds an inefficient layer of paperwork bureacracy for the large proportion of Medicaid patients who are already working. Many well-deserving, hard-working people will be pushed off Medicaid by this punitive effort, yet they will still seek care, and we will continue to see them in emergency departments — except they will be sicker, and hospitals and health care providers won’t be compensated for our care.
Seth Trueger, MD, MPH, FACEP
Emergency Physician