Source: Health Policy Institute of Ohio
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has officially asked the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to approve Medicaid work requirements (Source: “Ohio Gov. Dewine Officially Requests Federal Approval for Medicaid Work Requirements,” Ohio Capital Journal, March 4, 2025).
Under the proposal, to qualify for enrollment in Group VIII under Ohio’s Medicaid expansion, recipients would need to be at least 55 years old, employed, be enrolled in school or a job training program, be in a recovery program, or have a serious physical or mental health illness.
In 2018, the Ohio Department of Medicaid reported that 94% of Medicaid expansion enrollees were either employed, in school, taking care of family members (such as children or grandchildren), participating in an alcohol and drug treatment program, or dealing with intensive physical health and/or a mental health illness.
On February 28, Gov. DeWine sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., asking him to approve the work requirements. Ohio House Speaker Representative Matt Huffman (R-Lima, OH) and Ohio Senate President Senator Rob McColley (R-Napoleon, OH) also signed the letter.
More than a dozen states had Medicaid work requirement programs approved during Donald Trump’s first administration. Two states, Georgia and Arkansas, are now in the process of scaling the requirements back after unforeseen expenses and administrative burdens.
In addition to the evidence against work requirements, Those of us in practice long enough to recall life before the previous work requirement was rescinded will recall the constant stream of paperwork local JFS needed from us to certify the patient as disabled, how disabled and for how long. Not looking forward to going back to that administrative burden.