NAPLES, FL – Today, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced she will seek federal permission to require some able-bodied adults on Medicaid to work, train, or volunteer at least part time. The Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) applauds Gov. Sanders’s efforts to protect Arkansas’s Medicaid program and taxpayer dollars.
Thanks in large part to ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion, Arkansas’s Medicaid enrollment is at an all-time high and still rising—a problem only further exacerbated by pandemic-era policies. By 2022, there were nearly 340,000 able-bodied adults enrolled in Medicaid expansion in Arkansas. Arkansas’s expansion model is also twice as expensive for taxpayers as other ObamaCare expansions. This siphons resources away from the truly needy toward able-bodied adults who can and should be working. Businesses are desperate for workers, and far too many workers are sitting on the sidelines in government dependency.
“We know that work requirements work because we’ve seen them successfully move adults from dependency to the workforce in our state in the past,” said Nick Stehle, Vice President of Communications for FGA. “If we want to strengthen Medicaid and ensure those valuable resources are available to those who need them the most, work requirements are a necessity. Governor Sanders has taken an important first step in making that a reality.”
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The Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) is a non-profit, multi-state think tank that promotes public policy solutions to create opportunities for every American to experience the American Dream. To learn more, visit TheFGA.org.