Alabama Medicaid is trying to take health coverage away from our state’s poorest parents struggling to make ends meet. Gov. Kay Ivey has to get federal permission to make this harmful change. Here’s why that shouldn’t happen:

The work requirement creates a no-win, catch-22 situation.

• It targets 75,000 of the poorest Alabamians.
• It’s a trap: They lose coverage if they don’t work AND if they do.
• Without Medicaid expansion, it’s a work

The work requirement hurts families and children.

• It targets people who are already working at home, taking care of children.
• It ignores the shortage of affordable child care and public transportation.
• Taking away parents’ health coverage will put their children’s health at risk.

The work requirement hurts the state budget.

• Keeping track of who’s working, who’s looking for work, who’s not working and who’s exempt is hard and expensive. Those extra administrative costs will threaten other services like mental health and child protection.
• If the state expands child care to help the new working parents, as it should, that’s another big cost to the state.
• The plan does not show total state costs – which taxpayers deserve to know.

The work requirement goes against the mission of Medicaid.

• Congress set up Medicaid in 1965 to provide health coverage for people with low incomes and medical need.
• Cutting off health coverage in the name of promoting work violates Medicaid’s core purpose.

It’s vital to keep up the drumbeat of opposition. Alabama Medicaid got more than 800 public comments in Round 1 and more than 650 in a surprise Round 2. Next comes Round 3, the crucial federal comment period. Stay tuned for details!