Michigan's Medicaid Work Requirements Challenged in 5th Lawsuit of Its Kind

The plaintiffs claim Trump administration overstepped its legal authority in approving work requirements for Medicaid expansion beneficiaries.

Some of the same people who have successfully challenged Medicaid work requirements in other states are helping beneficiaries in Michigan challenge that state's requirements as well.

Four beneficiaries filed suit Friday, with help from the National Health Law Program (NHeLP), the Michigan Center for Civil Justice, and the Michigan Poverty Law Program in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

The suit challenges the federal government's 2018 approval of a waiver for the Healthy Michigan Plan, which authorized the imposition of work requirements on beneficiaries who gained coverage through the state's Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. The plaintiffs claim the Trump administration overstepped its legal authority.

"This case challenges the ongoing efforts of the Executive Branch to bypass the legislative process and act unilaterally to fundamentally transform Medicaid, a cornerstone of the social safety net," the complaint states. "Purporting to invoke a narrow statutory waiver authority that allows experimental projects 'likely to assist in promoting the objectives' of the Medicaid Act, the Executive Branch has instead effectively rewritten the statute, ignoring congressional restrictions, overturning a half-century of administrative practice, and threatening irreparable harm to the health and welfare of the poorest and most vulnerable in our country."

Proponents of work requirements, including Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma, have argued that work requirements promote self-sufficiency and help beneficiaries rise out of poverty.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, however, has rejected the government's argument in lawsuits challenging the approvals of Medicaid work requirements in Kentucky, Arkansas, and New Hampshire. Three appellate judges who heard oral arguments last month as they review Boasberg's decisions sounded similarly skeptical of the Trump administration's position.

Boasberg is also overseeing a challenge to Medicaid work requirements in Indiana, so this Michigan case is the fifth of its kind. Online court records indiciate that the latest case has yet to be assigned to a judge.

All five of these lawsuits have involved NHeLP, which works with local groups and beneficiaries in each state to challenge the new rules.