Georgia Republicans, under Gov. Brian Kemp, are conducting something of an experiment. Earlier this year, the state expanded eligibility for health insurance benefits under Medicaid — but it became the first in the nation to attach work requirements to that expansion. In doing so, Kemp is the latest conservative to predicate helping people in need on their showing that they’re worthy to receive the state’s assistance.
We’ve heard this tale again and again in attempts by Republicans and even some conservative Democrats to choke off access to public benefits by adding various kinds of work requirements. Some argue that creating hurdles for people to clear before getting help is a fiscal matter, preventing waste and fraud. Others present it as a moral imperative, keeping Americans from growing lazy on the government’s handouts. But the effect is always the same as we see in Georgia, completely hindering the program’s effectiveness and giving those who never wanted to provide public benefits at all one more reason to cut them entirely.
The effect is always the same as we see in Georgia, completely hindering the program’s effectiveness
The meager expansion that Kemp signed off on mandates that newly enrolled recipients prove they’ve spent 80 hours a month working, volunteering or studying. He first pitched the current set-up to the Trump-era Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services as part of that administration’s efforts to retool Medicaid. In an October 2020 letter to the Georgia Department of Community Health, which oversees Medicare and Medicaid for the state, then-CMS Administrator Seema Verma cleared Georgia’s pilot program; she highlighted the state’s initial analysis, which predicted that the new requirements would still see 30,000 Georgians sign up in the first year.
After a change in presidential administration and several court battles, Georgia finally opened the expansion to the public in July. But as Politico reported this week, the…
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