Work requirements, red tape ahead for millions on Medicaid

Now that the Republicans' big tax-and-spending bill has become law, new bureaucratic hurdles have emerged for millions of Americans who rely on Medicaid for health coverage.

- Jess Mador, Tribune News Service

A provision in the new law dictates that, in most states, for the first time, low-income adults must start meeting work requirements to keep their coverage. Some states have already tried doing this, but Georgia is the only state that has an active system using work requirements to establish Medicaid eligibility — and recipients must report to the system once a month. When she first started using the system, Tanisha Corporal, a social worker in Atlanta, wasn't opposed to work requirements — in principle. But when she left her job at a faith-based nonprofit to start her own project, the Be Well Black Girl Initiative, she needed health coverage. She soon came face-to-face with how daunting it can be to prove you are meeting the state's work requirements.

“I would have never thought that I was going to run into the challenges that I did, with trying to get approved, because I'm like, I am know the process,” Corporal said. “I've been in human services.” Corporal has been a social worker for more than two decades in Georgia and was familiar with the state’s social service programs.

For years, it had been her job to help others access benefit programmes. But her challenges with paperwork and the process had only begun. Health advocates point to Georgia's system as a sign that the new law will lead to excessive red tape, improper denials, and lost health coverage.