Washington - As noted in an earlier column, Arkansas’s first-in-the-country, first-in-history Medicaid work requirements have been backfiring.
The state has already purged 12,000 from the Medicaid rolls over the past three months. These Arkansans are not necessarily being booted because they're failing to work, however. Some have lost their insurance because the state has made it so ridiculously complicated for them to prove they're working.
Then, perversely, getting kicked off insurance can also make it harder for poor Arkansans to keep their jobs. Some people — such as Adrian McGonigal, a Medicaid recipient with a severe lung disease — need medication and other care in order to be productive, healthy workers.