Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he supports work requirements for some Medicaid recipients, and confirms he’d at least consider cutting spending on the nation’s public health insurance program for low-income residents by $800-billion — or more.
“That $800 billion figure is in the House budget,” Grassley says. “We have nothing in our Senate budget, but whether it’s in the Senate bill or not, if the House does things along this line, we’re going to have to consider it.”
Congress is working to find common ground on a plan to cut spending in order to pay for President Trump’s plans to extend tax cuts, and to boost spending on defense. Grassley was asked for specifics on the Medicaid work requirements.
“You can select any age you want to, but most of it is from the early 20s to 59 years of age,” Grassley says. “There’s another idea of going to 64 years of age.”
About 673,000 people are covered by Medicaid in Iowa. If you’re able to work, you should be working, Grassley says, adding, most people who have health insurance get it through their employer. He says there would be a long list of Medicaid recipients who would -not- have to work.
“It would be able-bodied people, meaning, it doesn’t include disabled people,” Grassley says. “It doesn’t include pregnant women. It doesn’t include families that have kids under 6 years of age at home, and other exceptions.”
Grassley says the work requirement proposal could save the federal government tens of billions of dollars, perhaps 200-billion. He says Medicaid recipients wouldn’t necessarily have to take full-time jobs.
“It would have probably as little as 20 hours of work a week,” Grassley says. “It could also include volunteering. It could also include going to school, things of that nature.”
Medicaid would -not- be cut, he says, for those who need it, “the very vulnerable in our society.”
The State of Iowa has already asked the Trump Administration to approve a work requirement plan for some of the Iowa adults enrolled in Medicaid. Governor Kim Reynolds said it’s about “promoting a culture of work” among “able-bodied” adults under age of 65 who get government-paid insurance coverage. The waiver request would require at least 100 hours of work per month.