Hospital beds lined up in a room.
Arizona’s Medicaid provider, AHCCCS, is seeking public input on a measure that would require “able-bodied” enrollees be employed, actively seeking employment, or going to school. It would also put a five-year limit on benefits for those people.
State lawmakers passed the measure, SB 1092, in 2015. Gov. Doug Ducey signed it into law about a year after a similar measure had been vetoed by then-Gov. Jan Brewer.
The federal government must approve the changes. It rejected many of the measures last year but the state will resubmit the proposal at the end of March.
Many attending a public forum on the measure, held in Tucson on Friday, expressed concern that the new administration would be more likely to give its OK.
Michelle Crow, Southern Arizona director of the advocacy group Children’s Action Alliance, said the changes would have devastating effects on many families and rural communities where high percentages of residents rely on AHCCCS.
"It’s just going to eviscerate access to health care services to an entire community," she said, noting that towns like Douglas would be particularly affected. "I’m not sure what those communities are going to do."
David Bachman-Williams said the changes would require that AHCCCS hire hundreds of new staff just to verify that people are working.
Why not just get rid of all these requirements and give good health care to people and we could save an enormous amount of money just by reducing the paperwork?" Bachman-Williams asked.
AHCCCS is accepting public comment until the end of February. All comments will be reviewed and included in the proposal it sends to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which has the final say.
Click here to read more about SB 1092 or for information on how to provide input.
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