Michigan's new Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, is forced by state law to continue to work on implementing the work requirements for Medicaid that were signed into law by her predecessor, Republican Rick Snyder, last year. The state is still trying to move ahead with the law, even as a federal judge has invalidated similar measures in Kentucky and Arkansas.
Whitmer has been attempting to ease those work requirements, against the opposition of the Republican legislature. The Trump administration has approved the state's waiver to enact the requirements, and Michigan is going forward to meet the Jan. 1, 2020, deadline for them, when Medicaid recipients under the expansion program will have to report their employment or show that they're attending school or job training to keep their coverage.
While the ruling against Kentucky and Arkansas doesn't cover any other states, Idaho and Iowa both pulled back from passing work requirement legislation as a result. Some of the elements of Michigan's program, critics say, are similar enough to both Arkansas' and Kentucky's programs to leave the state at risk of lawsuits if it goes forward with the program as is. "I think (state) policymakers should go back and either put a hold on implementation, or repeal it entirely," said Jesse Cross-Call, senior policy analyst for the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, D.C. "If that’s not possible given political dynamics in the state, they’re just basically walking into something that, right now, it looks like the outcome is going to go against the state. […] Or, the outcome is going to force the state to reverse or pause a lot of work on their implementation."
Total repeal is unlikely with Republicans in charge in the legislature, but at the least Whitmer's administration should be given the opportunity to make changes that could avoid what everyone now knows would result in a costly lawsuit for the state.