Michigan: BREAKING: DC Circuit Court rules Medicaid Work Requirements illegal, must be suspended!

This just broke moments ago so I don't have much in the way of details yet:

DC district court just entered summary judgment holding Michigan’s Medicaid work requirements are unlawful.

— Jane Perkins (@perkins_nhelp) March 4, 2020

Work requirements are a policy disaster -- and their suspension by court order here in Michigan is an extraordinarily positive development.

— Nicholas Bagley (@nicholas_bagley) March 4, 2020

There is, however, also this:

Breaking news: Also pending in the same court, New Hampshire and Indiana Medicaid work requirements. They will surely meet the same fate. https://t.co/qu0GurN0A9

— Joan Alker (@JoanAlker1) March 4, 2020

Coming on top of Joe Biden's stunning comeback performance on Super Tuesday and Michael Bloomberg announcing he's dropping out, it's a hell of a news day and it's not even noon yet...

Patiently waiting for some guidance from @MichiganHHS regarding the summary judgment regarding our work requirements. We're going to get a lot of questions!

— Jen Anderson (@sayitagainjen) March 4, 2020

Anderson works for the Michigan Primary Care Association.

Nicholas Bagley adds a few more thoughts:

With work requirements suspended in Michigan and pretty much everywhere else, (Utah excepted), attention will turn to the Supreme Court. The federal government will likely ask for it to review the D.C. Circuit's decision invalidating work requirements. But that'll take time.

Between now and the moment that the Supreme Court might hear the case, we've got an election. If Trump wins, and if the Supreme Court blesses work requirements, we'll see them imposed in at least 20 states.

If Biden or Sanders wins, the waivers will be revoked and the case will be moot. So get out there and vote, people. Insurance coverage for hundreds of thousands of people through Medicaid hangs in the balance. /fin

One other thing: This also means that, as Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer (and anyone with an ounce of sense) predicted, Michigan's Republican-held legislature just pissed away at least $30 million in taxpayer dollars for NO REASON.

OK, here's a very minor update:

The short order came from U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C. He had earlier invalidated Arkansas' requirement that low-income people work for government-provided health insurance, dealing a blow to the Trump administration's efforts to remake Medicaid. https://t.co/wQszITfL0C

— David Eggert (@DavidEggert00) March 4, 2020

Also: 

The only state now where a Medicaid work requirement is currently being implemented is Utah. Litigation has not been filed there yet. But assuming it is, it will go to the same Judge that just struck down Michigan and will be ruling on Indiana.

— Joan Alker (@JoanAlker1) March 4, 2020

UPDATE: Here's a formal news article about this development with some additional details:

Four Michigan residents sued the federal government in November, with assistance from advocacy groups.

Prior to the ruling, the state had been preparing to notify more than 80,000 enrollees in Michigan’s Medicaid expansion program that they did not comply with reporting requirements for January and would lose their coverage on May 31 if they did not report for February and March. The state had 674,000 expansion participants as of November.

...Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration had asked for a quick ruling, saying there was no dispute Michigan’s requirements are illegal, too.

...Though nine states have had Medicaid work requirement waivers approved by the Trump administration, Michigan was the only one with rules in effect.* Boasberg previously blocked the requirements in Kentucky, Arkansas and New Hampshire; and two other states, Arizona and Indiana, have blocked enforcement or implementation, citing litigation.

*(as noted above, this isn't accurate...Utah has also implemented their work requirement program as well.

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