The National Health Law Program, Legal Aid of Arkansas and the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit Aug. 14 to stop the implementation of Medicaid work requirements in Arkansas, according to CNN.
The new mandate went into effect June 1 and requires Medicaid enrollees between the ages of 30 and 49, who are not disabled and do not have dependent children at home, to work 80 hours per month. Under these rules, nearly 30 percent of Arkansas Medicaid recipients are ineligible for coverage and have two months to find work before they are kicked out of the program.
In June, a federal judge blocked Kentucky's Medicaid work requirements because the policy's architects did not prove the measures "would in fact help the state furnish medical assistance to its citizens, a central objective of Medicaid."