Few Will Be Spared From Michigan's Medicaid Work Requirements

A controversial state bill in Michigan would exempt certain counties from new work requirements proposed for recipients of Medicaid. On paper, the bill looks like it would rescue rural white constituents from work requirements while imposing the new standards on their urban black counterparts. Yet the bill’s likely effect may be vastly overstated—a marker of the uncertainty surrounding Republican efforts to tighten welfare.

Just last month, Michigan’s senate passed a law that would require Medicaid recipients to prove that they work 29 hours a week in order to receive their benefits going forward. The state’s house is now weighing the bill. So far, only four states have won approval for similar waivers from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services—Kentucky, Indiana, Arkansas, and New Hampshire—and none of these plans have gone into effect yet.