Association Between State Policies Using Medicaid Exclusions to Sanction Noncompliance With Welfare Work Requirements and Medicaid Participation Among Low-Income Adults

Authors

Atheendar S. Venkataramani, University of Pennsylvania
Elizabeth F. Bair, University of Pennsylvania
Erica Dixon, University of Pennsylvania
Kristin A. Linn, University of Pennsylvania
William J. Ferrell, University of Pennsylvania
Kevin G. Volpp, University of Pennsylvania
Kristen Underhill, Columbia Law School

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2020

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.4579

Abstract

Twenty states have pursued community engagement requirements (ie, work requirements) as a condition for Medicaid eligibility among adults considered able-bodied. Work requirements seek to improve health by incentivizing work, but may result in coverage losses.

The impact of work requirements on Medicaid coverage may extend beyond qualifying beneficiaries, by increasing confusion around benefit rules or deterring individuals from applying for coverage. However, the spillover effects of work requirements on individuals not directly subject to them are difficult to study because these programs have only recently been implemented. To examine this possibility, we studied Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the cash welfare program enacted under welfare reform in 1996. The TANF program requires able-bodied beneficiaries to fulfill work requirements, and states can elect to terminate Medicaid benefits as a sanction for nonpregnant adult TANF participants who do not comply with them. In states adopting these sanctions, Medicaid eligibility for dual TANF-Medicaid enrollees was effectively conditional on meeting work requirements. This quasi-experimental cohort study examines whether TANF-Medicaid sanctions had spillover effects on Medicaid coverage among low-income adults who were not likely to participate in TANF and, therefore, were not directly subject to these sanctions.

Disciplines

Law | Medical Jurisprudence

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Atheendar S. Venkataramani, Elizabeth F. Bair, Erica Dixon, Kristin A. Linn, William J. Ferrell, Kevin G. Volpp & Kristen Underhill, Association Between State Policies Using Medicaid Exclusions to Sanction Noncompliance With Welfare Work Requirements and Medicaid Participation Among Low-Income Adults, 3(5) JAMA Netw. Open e204579 (2020).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/3335