The Biden administration is stripping work requirements for Medicaid recipients, a move a government watchdog says is unnecessary for a program that operated with weak, flexible rules.

A total of 10 states were informed last month the new administration is removing work requirements that were permitted by the Trump administration, The Associated Press reported in February.

The move followed an executive order, signed by President Biden, that ordered federal officials to remove “barriers” to coverage.

Medicaid, a health insurance program, covers approximately 70 million Americans at a cost of $600 billion annually which is shared by the federal government and the states.

“It’s a bad thing,” says Scott Centorino of the Foundation for Government Accountability.

The work requirements only apply to able-bodied adults, he says, who are typically between ages 18 and 50, with no dependents in the home, and who are not held back by disabilities, or drug of alcohol problems.

“We’re talking about 20 hours a week, generally, not 40 hours a week or anything else,” Centorino says of the requirements, “and you can comply with a work requirement by volunteering or training for any combination of things.”

Despite those lax demands, states were sued over them and a federal judge blocked Arkansas and New Hampshire from implementing them.

Arkansas was the first state to implement them during the Trump administration, the AP reported.

Leslie Rutledge, the Arkansas attorney general, said the Biden decision last month is “overreach” by the Democrat president and it came before the state’s pilot program was given an opportunity to succeed.

“Americans,” says Centorino, “overwhelmingly support work requirements in welfare.”

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Copyright American Family News. Reprinted with permission.

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