***Special Edition***
URGENT: Mississippi Medicaid Workforce Training Initiative – Update
Mississippi Medicaid is proposing the MS Medicaid Workforce Training Initiative 1115 Demonstration Waiver. The revised initiative Mississippi is proposing would still limit access to healthcare coverage for parents and caregivers making less than 27% 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 not adequately defined. (For example, a parent and two children = $384 while poverty level is $1,701, 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 place most of them over the income limit. Based on the state’s own data, approximately 5,000 individuals will lose their Medicaid coverage in the first year, and approximately 20,000 individuals will 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. Only 1,280 individuals (2% 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.
The link for submitting comments is:
https://public.medicaid.gov/connect.ti/public.comments/viewQuestionnaire?qid=1897411 (click on “Answer the questionnaire.”) Comments are due at 11 p.m. on August 18, 2018. Submit your comments now and feel free to forward this information to other families and professionals, and urge them to submit their comments.
Fora copy of the full report, visit: https://medicaid.ms.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Full-Public-Notice-for-the-Medicaid-Workforce-Training-Initiative-1115-Demonstration-Waiver.pdf
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Family Health Notes is sponsored by the Institute for Disability Studies (IDS), Mississippi’s University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD) at The University of Southern Mississippi. IDS provides university training, community service activities, research and information that promote the independence, productivity, and community inclusion of individuals with disabilities and their families. For more information about IDS, visit http://www.usm.edu/disability-studies or call 1.888.671.0051 (TTY). To make a tax-deductible gift to IDS, visit http://www.usm.edu/disability-studies/support-ids.
The Family-to-Family Health Information and Education Center (F2F) is a family-focused, family managed resource center that empowers families of Mississippi children with special health care needs to be partners in the decisions made concerning the health of their children. F2F is funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (GR#H84MC07948).
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