On the evening of March 14th, 2025, the Kentucky General Assembly hastily added mandatory work reporting requirements for Medicaid recipients in Kentucky. Please see the below statement from Kentucky Voices for Health Executive Director, Emily Beauregard.
Media contact: Emily Beauregard, 502.209.9088, emily@kyvoicesforhealth.org
“In a disappointing and surprising twist, the Kentucky General Assembly chose to add mandatory Medicaid work reporting requirements to HB695 after 9PM this past Friday night. When policies that impact thousands of Kentuckians are rushed through the legislative process in the middle of the night without even an opportunity for Kentuckians to call and voice concern, transparency and trust is fractured. Passage of HB695 in its new form came weeks after the original bill was heard in committee, with testimony and discussion related to the continuation of Kentucky’s existing community engagement program that is voluntary and already serving more than 40,000 Kentuckians with work supports and training.
This is not the first time mandatory work reporting requirements have been attempted, and it is just as misguided now as it was before. Hardworking, low-income Kentuckians are already contributing meaningfully to their communities. With 96% of Kentuckian adults using Medicaid working full or part time, caregiving, living with a disability or illness, in school, or retired, this effort ultimately swings a policy sledgehammer at the wrong gnat. When attempted in 2018, mandatory work reporting requirements were estimated to cost Kentucky $17.5 million in state funds and $170 million in federal funds – amounting to more costly administrative red tape to cover fewer people. At that time, 95,000 Kentuckians were expected to lose coverage before the plan was blocked by a federal judge. We’ve seen mandatory requirements fail in other states, as well, never delivering on their promises to save money, improve workforce participation, or lead to better-paying jobs that provide employer sponsored health insurance.
We all want our families and communities to thrive. And Kentuckians want to advance and make their families stronger and healthier. There are ways for Kentucky’s policymakers to approach cost-savings within Medicaid that don’t hurt people: invest in more employment training and resources, address the transportation and child care barriers that make it difficult for many Kentuckians to find and keep work, establish a basic health plan so the benefits cliff isn’t so devastating, filter out low-value care within Medicaid to focus on high-value care already available, and eliminate administrative burdens for providers.
Kentucky’s hardworking families deserve better than hastily-passed policies in the dead of night with no public notice or input. Stay tuned as we coordinate with medicaid members, employers, providers, and advocates from across the state to call on our legislators to reconsider HB695 during their final two days in session.” — Emily Beauregard, Executive Director, Kentucky Voices for Health
