Washington, D.C. — Today, Governor Josh Green, M.D. (D-HI), Georgia State Representative Inga Willis and Kevin De Liban, a lawyer who successfully sued to stop Arkansas’ Medicaid work requirements program, joined Protect Our Care to discuss how the Republican scheme to impose work requirements will rip away health care from people who need it the most. Both Rep. Willis and De Liban know firsthand how ineffective and wasteful work requirements are through the failures of their respective state programs after thousands of people wrongfully lost their coverage.
Republicans in Congress are charging ahead with their spending bill to throw 16 million Americans off their health care in order to fund tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. Earlier this week, Senate Republicans unveiled their version of the GOP tax bill, exposing their scheme to cut more than $1 trillion from American health care. As part of this bill, Republicans want to impose new, onerous Medicaid work reporting requirements. Research and states like Georgia and Arkansas show that work reporting requirements are nothing more than bureaucratic red tape designed to throw people off their health care.
“The Republican bill will destroy and devastate the rural health care system across our country,” said Governor Josh Green, M.D. (D-HI). “If the hospital where I worked as the lone physician closed, my patients would have to drive 75 miles to get care elsewhere. Individuals would have to make the decision, do I drive to get care for their loved one who’s having a heart attack or wait for an ambulance to get to me and then to a town an hour away? Large, vast areas of America are going to have a more difficult time finding health care. It is utter madness to be taking health care away from our most vulnerable communities to make sure that millionaires get even richer.”
“My grandmother used to call it snake oil that was peddled by a charlatan,” said Georgia State Representative Inga Willis (D-55th District). “It appears to be such a great idea to promote a greater work ethic of people, but actually what you’re doing is making a process more cumbersome for the most vulnerable of our citizens, which leads me to believe that the cruelty is the point.”
“These aren’t hiccups – these are mass coverage losses done in a totally foreseeable, intended way,” said Attorney Kevin De Liban. “In only five months, 18,164 Arkansans lost coverage due to these penalties, and there were thousands more who lost coverage because of paperwork burdens that are associated with these penalties. Work requirements are not a serious proposal – it’s laughable and a joke. And the cost of that laughter is going to be millions and millions of low-income Americans without health care.”
“Work requirements are nothing but a cruel excuse to rip away lifesaving care from millions of people,” said Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach. “All it does is bury people under mountains of paperwork and red tape until they lose their coverage and no one will be spared. Not only will older adults, people with disabilities, children, and working families lose coverage, but seniors will be thrown out of nursing homes, rural hospitals will shutter, and people with serious medical conditions like cancer will be forced to stop treatment. Republicans know what they are doing. This isn’t about requiring work, this is about weakening Medicaid.”