As New Hampshire nears a Medicaid work requirement, Dems remain skeptical

It took two years and a change in presidential administrations, but a long-sought federal waiver to add a work requirement to New Hampshire’s Medicaid expansion appears within reach.

On Thursday, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, known as CMS, issued a letter to state governors allowing states to apply for work requirement waivers to the Medicaid expansion program.

But as the drafting of the reauthorization bill gets underway, a pivotal question remains: Will New Hampshire Democrats accept a new work requirement to save a program they’ve championed from the start?

Some in the party are not yet sold.

“I’m very concerned,” House Democratic Leader Steve Shurtleff of Penacook said last week. ‘The whole purpose of Medicaid expansion was to make people healthy. And to put up any kind of a roadblock that would keep people from not wanting to apply to receive those benefits, I think, could be dangerous.”

Read more: http://www.concordmonitor.com/With-a-Medicaid-expansion-work-requirement-waiver-likely-will-Democrats-get-on-board-14857091