08/17/2018
URGENT: Mississippi Medicaid Workforce Training Initiative – Updated
Mississippi Medicaid is proposing the MS Medicaid Workforce Training Initiative 1115 Demonstration Waiver . The revised initiative that Mississippi is proposing would still limit access to healthcare coverage for parents and caregivers making less than 27 percent of the federal poverty level (approximately $5,513 per year for a family of three) and individuals receiving Transitional Medical Assistance if they do not work at least 20 hours per week, unless they qualify for certain exemptions which are poorly defined. (Parent and 2 children = $384 while poverty level is $1701, meanwhile 20 hours per week at Minimum Wage is $621.50 per month.) The request to require caretakers to work 20 hours per week would make most of them over the income limits. Based on the state’s own data, approximately 5,000 individuals would lose their Medicaid coverage in the first year, and approximately 20,000 individuals would lose coverage over the five years of the demonstration. These coverages losses would clearly jeopardize access to care for individuals with serious, acute and chronic diseases in Mississippi.
Mississippi’s revised proposal provides beneficiaries with an additional 12 months of Transitional Medical Assistance if they continue to comply with the new requirements but no longer meet the eligibility criteria for the state’s Medicaid program as a result of their increased earnings. This revision is both a temporary fix and insufficient because individuals could still lose coverage if they get caught up in red tape trying to prove their continued compliance, and, based on the state’s own data, just 1,280 individuals (two percent of parents in Mississippi’s Medicaid program) are expected to benefit from the extension. Coverage for individuals with serious, acute and chronic conditions therefore remains at risk.
While helping connect people to work is a worthwhile goal, the waiver does not address the real barriers to employment faced by Mississippi’s poor families such as a lack of access to childcare, job training and transportation. Parents who have access to health care are better able to nurture and support their child’s healthy development. When parents are uninsured, children tend to go to the doctor less frequently and are less likely to have their own coverage. As parents become uninsured, the entire family is at greater risk for medical debt and even bankruptcy – moving these families further away from the direction of economic self-sufficiency.
The requirements outlined by Mississippi still do not further the goals of the Medicaid program or help low-income families improve their circumstances without needlessly compromising their access to care.
These are just a few reason why the Workforce Training Initiative will NOT be good or productive for Mississippi’s families being served by MS Medicaid.
(click on “Answer the questionnaire.”) Comments are due at 11 pm on August 18, 2018. Submit your comments now and feel free to forward this information to other families & professionals and urge them to submit their comments.
Here is a copy of the full report ….https://medicaid.ms.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Full-Public-Notice-for-the-Medicaid-Workforce-Training-Initiative-1115-Demonstration-Waiver.pdf
On January 16, 2018, Mississippi submitted a request for a new demonstration to implement workforce training requirements for Medicaid-eligible non-disabled adults, including low-income parents/caretakers and individuals eligible for Transitional Medical Assistance (TMA). Mississippi's goal is to pr...
