Michigan has put in place a new Medicaid work requirement that blatantly discriminates against its poorest communities and people of color.
According to Vox, the new bill requires people on Medicaid to provide proof of working 30 hours each week to keep their Medicaid coverage, but if you live in a county where the unemployment is above 8.5 percent, you don’t have to that.
So that means, the people living in the predominately white rural counties don’t have to meet this requirement.
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But residents in Detroit or Flint, where they can’t even drink a glass of clean water to nourish them, have to struggle to find employment and comply with a requirement to work 30 hours each week in a failing and underfunded city in order to keep their Medicaid.
Just wow.
White Medicaid recipients get a break, while Black and Brown Medicaid recipients will most likely lose their coverage.
As the Detroit Free Press’s Nancy Kaffer noted, “state lawmakers are pushing a plan that would require Medicaid recipients (with exceptions for the disabled, elderly, and a few other selected populations) to work or search for work at least 29 hours each week. If they fail to meet the work requirement, they could lose Medicaid coverage for a full year.”
The bill’s sponsors in fact live in those largely white communities that are exempt from this requirement, reports Vox.
The biased proposal passed the State Senate in Lansing and is expected to pass the House.
The Trump administration made a major health care policy shift by saying that states could impose work requirements for people on Medicaid.
According to federal officials, states would have the support of the administration if they wanted to make Medicaid recipients find work or engage in other “community engagement activities.”
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