Fox medical contributor pushes for courts to allow ineffective and harmful Medicaid work requirements

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reportedly found that Arkansas instituting work requirements for Medicaid did not work, with less people ending up with insurance but with no boost to employment. As Vox's Dylan Scott explained, “Policy experts have argued from the start that work requirements were contrary to Medicaid’s purpose of providing health coverage to low-income Americans and that most people who are on Medicaid and can work already do work. They had also warned that irregular hours and burdensome reporting requirements, rather than failing to work, were more likely to lead to people losing coverage.”

From the July 9 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom:

DR. MARC SIEGEL (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): The Trump administration is trying to deregulate the [Affordable Care Act] and to put in place pieces where if you took out the individual mandate, you'd want more choice. You'd want group plans. You'd want association plans. You'd want Medicaid expansion to have work requirements. And across the board, these things are getting tied up in court. Ninety percent of the attempts to deregulate the law and introduce more choice -- 90% of these attempts by the Trump administration now tied up in court.

SANDRA SMITH (CO-ANCHOR): So what do you think ultimately happens here?

SIEGEL: I think we have to have a compromise. If the law stands, which I think it will, we then have to find ways to fill in the gaps. Why wouldn't you have Medicaid work programs in states that want them, states that say, hey, we want people to have the opportunity to participate in community service, to get education --

SMITH: I know you reference Kentucky and Arkansas and their work on that.

SIEGEL: Exactly. And those two waivers that were requested were basically not approved because of courts. Courts ruled them down. So Medicaid expansion, I'd like the idea of work requirements if the states want it. I like the idea of group plans. Why shouldn't associations be able to come together? That will lead to more competition, more choice, and more access to cheaper plans.

Previously:

Fox medical contributor ​claims physicians are already too “swamped” by Obamacare to deal with treating migrants  

Newt Gingrich pushes myth that able-bodied adults are freeloading off Medicaid to suggest work requirement

Top Kentucky newspapers consistently reported on the substance and impact of Kentucky's Medicaid waiver