A top health official in the Trump administration defended Medicaid work requirements Thursday, arguing that the intent isn’t to expel people from the program. “Community engagement requirements are not some subversive attempt to just kick people off of Medicaid,” Seema Verma, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said in a speech in Washington, D.C. “Instead, their aim is to put beneficiaries in control with the right incentives to live healthier, independent lives.” More than 4,300 people lost their Medicaid coverage in Arkansas this month for not adhering to the new rules. (Jessie Hellmann, The Hill)
