Partisan sparring follows rejection of Georgia Medicaid plan

The Biden administration’s decision to revoke approval of Georgia’s plan to require Medicaid recipients to meet a work requirement was jeered by top Republicans in the state but welcomed by Democrats as an opportunity for a bigger expansion of the health care program.

U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said Thursday that implementing the work requirement during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic would “only work to hinder the overall wellbeing of low-income Georgians.” The work provision was part of the state’s plan — dubbed “Georgia Pathways” — to make more low-income Georgians eligible for Medicaid.

“Considering the physical, mental, social and economic toll the public health emergency has taken on individuals, CMS believes it is especially important that the low-income individuals who are the intended beneficiaries of the Georgia Pathways to Coverage demonstration be able to access coverage and care without the initial and continued eligibility obstacle of a work requirement that may be unreasonably difficult or impossible for individuals to meet under the circumstances of COVID-19 and its likely aftermath,” she wrote in a letter to Georgia Department of Community Health Commissioner Caylee Noggle.