{"id":1090,"date":"2019-08-29T10:36:53","date_gmt":"2019-08-29T17:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/?p=1090"},"modified":"2019-08-29T10:36:53","modified_gmt":"2019-08-29T17:36:53","slug":"waiver-season-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/?p=1090","title":{"rendered":"Waiver Season II"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Not that kind of waver<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Harvest is well along here on the Palouse, tomatoes are ripe, and it\u2019s the second season for waivers thanks to our state leaders. The open comment period for this round began last Friday and runs through Sept 22nd<\/sup>; you can read about commenting here<\/a>. And here is a website<\/a> where you can submit a comment, just click on the “Take Action” tab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We haven\u2019t heard any response from the Trump administration\non the first waiver application, \u201cIdaho Coverage Choice\u201d. That one would allow\nfolks on the Idaho Exchange to choose to \u201ckeep their insurance\u201d. That was\nsubmitted back in mid-July. It would add to our expanding federal budget\ndeficit. I can\u2019t see how it will be approved. I\u2019m waiting for a tweet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the current waiver application has to do with the \u201cwork\nrequirements\u201d the legislature added and the Governor signed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m all for helping, indeed expecting folks to climb out of\npoverty, and a good paying job is one honest way to do it. But the requirements\nfor reporting and maintaining eligibility for health insurance have proven\ndifficult for many states to implement. In Arkansas 18,000 folks got kicked off\nthe rolls just because they couldn\u2019t (or didn\u2019t) file timely reports. I would\nhope Idaho could do better. But keep in mind, doing better costs more money. Do\nyou want to grow government to keep nudging people to get to work? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Montana did it right. They tied Medicaid applicants to job\ntraining and work openings through their Department of Labor. It didn\u2019t add any\nbureaucracy to their system, but boosted employment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the blessings of being in a conservative state is we\ncan learn from early-adopters mistakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kentucky\u2019s efforts to add work requirements were initially\napproved by the Trump administration but then thrown out twice by a Federal\nCourt; same with New Hampshire. There are currently six states with\nTrump-approved Medicaid work requirements, but not enacted yet. I suspect Idaho\nwill join this group. And then we will send our Attorney General to defend a\nlawsuit in Federal Court. Our tax dollars would be better spent helping the\nworking poor, not paying lawyers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the dirty little secrets of work and Medicaid is that\nthere are lots of folks working even full time who would still be eligible for\nMedicaid. It\u2019s because their employer doesn\u2019t offer health insurance and their\nwages are so low. There are currently in the US over 5 million workers (35% of\nadult Medicaid enrollees) on Medicaid. They are janitors, food service, construction,\nhospital, retail workers. But not in Idaho; up until Medicaid Expansion passed,\nable-bodied adults without children were not eligible for Medicaid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Idaho, where our wages are so low, the Department of\nHealth and Welfare estimates 60% of the newly eligible Medicaid population\nwould be working the equivalent of full time. Keep in mind, Idaho\u2019s\nunemployment is rock bottom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, this waiver proposal would set up reporting\nrequirements. We saw what that did in Arkansas. Somebody forgets to file their\nmonthly work report, falls off a ladder, goes to the ER, and who\u2019s paying the\nbill then? Yup, the taxpayer pays, and our costly county Indigent Program and\nstate Catastrophic fund pony up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It makes sense to expect good behavior from folks getting public\nsupport. When I first was running for office I met with a group of union\nworkers at the local. They didn\u2019t seem too keen to see a Democrat. I asked them\nwhat was most important to them. One guy offered, \u201cWhy don\u2019t we drug test\npeople on Welfare?\u201d I told him I\u2019d look into it since it made some sense. Some\nstates have done this. It turned out the expensive tests proved drug use in\napplicants for assistance was less than a third of the general population. And\nstates paid out millions to deny benefits to less than 1% of applicants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we want folks to act responsibly, we should expect our government to also do so with our dear tax dollars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harvest is well along here on the Palouse, tomatoes are ripe, and it\u2019s the second season for waivers thanks to our state leaders. The open comment period for this round began last Friday and runs through Sept 22nd; you can … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1090"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1093,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090\/revisions\/1093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}