In July President Trump signed legislation that creates new work requirements for Medicaid and increases the number of people required to complete work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. State officials have estimated that the Medicaid work requirements may lead 24,900 Utahns losing access to Medicaid and so it is important that we do our best to implement them in a way that is as fair and intelligible as possible. Here are four simple ideas for implementing the work requirements grounded in Crossroads Urban Center's almost 60 years of working with and serving low income Utahs.
1) Work programs should be oriented toward the goal of helping people move into higher paying jobs that provide health insurance and other benefits. State officials will probably be able to meet the expectations of federal officials if we implement these new work requirements in ways that just reduce the number of people participating in Medicaid and SNAP. Our state should attempt to exceed these expectations by having a program focused on helping people increase their incomes in ways that make them not need Medicaid or SNAP benefits. It is easy to create a punitive system that chases people from programs with busywork and unrealistic deadlines. A system designed like that would move people from poverty to deeper poverty. It takes more effort to design a system that nudges people to pursue the education and training they need to obtain a job than pays more money and offers more hours per week than the job they currently have. Utahns who feel trapped in low wage jobs respond enthusiastically to opportunities to increase their income. Our state should endeavor to implement these new work requirements in a way that the people impacted by them feel like they are being encouraged to pursue dreams rather than being punished for not following someone else's rules.
2) Work programs should have processes in place to identify when people have significant barriers to employment and connect people to appropriate services. The rules for new federal work requirements will Include some exemptions for people with disabilities. Utah's programs should have processes in place to identify when a person qualifies for an exemption. However, in the process of assessing people's job readiness the state will learn that specific people have barriers to employment that do not qualify for exemption but may indicate the presence of an underlying condition that has not been diagnosed. If the state learns that a person cannot read at third grade level they could just narrow the job search options for that person but it would be more helpful to learn why they have difficulty learning and connect them with appropriate services. This approach would lead to learning that some people have more severe disabling conditions but it could also lead to other people developing skills that make more valuable to employers.
3) Work programs need to encourage people to pursue education and training opportunities that are proven to increase income. Often the people who would benefit the most from adult education and job training programs do not think those programs will help them. Their past experiences with education were negative and so they believe educational programs are just a waste of time. However, participating in education and training opportunities can exempt people from new federal work requirements. That gives us an opportunity to reach out to people who are skeptioal about education and training programs and let them know what programs they are eligible for and how those programs have benefited people like themselves. A person who is working for an employer who caps their hours at 20 per week is going to be at a serious risk of losing Medicaid if they miss one day of work. Being enrolled in an educational or job training program would exempt them from the work requirement and thereby reduce their anxiety about losing access to healthcare and nutrition assistance. It also would put them on a track toward obtaining a better job.
4) We need to make it easy for people to complete the final hours of participation in months where they are slightly short of a program's required hours. The new federal rules include requirements for participation in paid work and/or volunteer work. Someone who averages 20 hours per week is going to periodically have a missed or cancelled shift and will need to volunteer somewhere or get a second job to meet their participation requirement for a specific month. The process of restoring eligibility after being cut from a program is much more complicated for the individual and the state than helping someone to meet program requirements and not be cut from the program. Having two and four hour volunteer opportunities available for people who need them will make this new system work better for everyone.
1) Work programs should be oriented toward the goal of helping people move into higher paying jobs that provide health insurance and other benefits. State officials will probably be able to meet the expectations of federal officials if we implement these new work requirements in ways that just reduce the number of people participating in Medicaid and SNAP. Our state should attempt to exceed these expectations by having a program focused on helping people increase their incomes in ways that make them not need Medicaid or SNAP benefits. It is easy to create a punitive system that chases people from programs with busywork and unrealistic deadlines. A system designed like that would move people from poverty to deeper poverty. It takes more effort to design a system that nudges people to pursue the education and training they need to obtain a job than pays more money and offers more hours per week than the job they currently have. Utahns who feel trapped in low wage jobs respond enthusiastically to opportunities to increase their income. Our state should endeavor to implement these new work requirements in a way that the people impacted by them feel like they are being encouraged to pursue dreams rather than being punished for not following someone else's rules.
2) Work programs should have processes in place to identify when people have significant barriers to employment and connect people to appropriate services. The rules for new federal work requirements will Include some exemptions for people with disabilities. Utah's programs should have processes in place to identify when a person qualifies for an exemption. However, in the process of assessing people's job readiness the state will learn that specific people have barriers to employment that do not qualify for exemption but may indicate the presence of an underlying condition that has not been diagnosed. If the state learns that a person cannot read at third grade level they could just narrow the job search options for that person but it would be more helpful to learn why they have difficulty learning and connect them with appropriate services. This approach would lead to learning that some people have more severe disabling conditions but it could also lead to other people developing skills that make more valuable to employers.
3) Work programs need to encourage people to pursue education and training opportunities that are proven to increase income. Often the people who would benefit the most from adult education and job training programs do not think those programs will help them. Their past experiences with education were negative and so they believe educational programs are just a waste of time. However, participating in education and training opportunities can exempt people from new federal work requirements. That gives us an opportunity to reach out to people who are skeptioal about education and training programs and let them know what programs they are eligible for and how those programs have benefited people like themselves. A person who is working for an employer who caps their hours at 20 per week is going to be at a serious risk of losing Medicaid if they miss one day of work. Being enrolled in an educational or job training program would exempt them from the work requirement and thereby reduce their anxiety about losing access to healthcare and nutrition assistance. It also would put them on a track toward obtaining a better job.
4) We need to make it easy for people to complete the final hours of participation in months where they are slightly short of a program's required hours. The new federal rules include requirements for participation in paid work and/or volunteer work. Someone who averages 20 hours per week is going to periodically have a missed or cancelled shift and will need to volunteer somewhere or get a second job to meet their participation requirement for a specific month. The process of restoring eligibility after being cut from a program is much more complicated for the individual and the state than helping someone to meet program requirements and not be cut from the program. Having two and four hour volunteer opportunities available for people who need them will make this new system work better for everyone.
