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 The justices took up the administration's appeals of rulings by a
lower court that found the work requirement programs to be unlawful.
The case potentially could become moot once Democratic
President-elect Joe Biden takes office on Jan. 20. Seventeen other
states are pursuing similar policies.
"The Biden administration can certainly change this policy, and we
hope that will happen," said Jane Perkins, legal director of the
National Health Law Program, a healthcare advocacy group.
The administration said in court papers that the appeals court
rulings cast a legal shadow on the efforts in those other states to
adopt work requirements for Medicaid, a state-federal program that
provides medical insurance for the poor. New Hampshire and Arkansas
filed court papers in support of the administration.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2018 approved
those projects as part of a push to put a conservative stamp on
Medicaid, which was expanded in 37 states and the District of
Columbia following the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act, also
known as Obamacare, to help provide coverage to millions more
Americans.
Under the Republican Trump, the department gave the go-ahead for
states to carry out test projects requiring able-bodied people on
Medicaid to work or do volunteer work.
The approval of the waivers prompted lawsuits by residents enrolled
in various states' Medicaid programs, including ones in Arkansas and
New Hampshire.
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U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in 2019 struck down the agency's approval of
the Arkansas program, called Arkansas Works. Boasberg later used the same
reasoning in rejecting New Hampshire's work requirements.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in February
upheld Boasberg's decision in the Arkansas case, saying HHS failed to adequately
consider the extent to which the state's requirements would cause people to lose
healthcare coverage. The D.C. Circuit reached the same conclusion for the New
Hampshire program in a May ruling.
In court papers, Trump's administration argued that a federal law called the
Social Security Act specifically allowed HHS to approve any experimental or
pilot project that is likely to assist in promoting the objectives of Medicaid.
The D.C. Circuit ruled that Medicaid has "one primary purpose, which is
providing healthcare coverage without any restriction geared to healthy
outcomes, financial independence or transition to commercial coverage." The
court noted that 18,000 people - about a quarter of those subject to the
requirement - lost their coverage in the first five months after Arkansas Works
was put in place.
(Additional reporting by Nate Raymond; Editing by Will Dunham)
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