Arkansas Aims to Impose Work Requirement on ‘Able-Bodied’ Medicaid Beneficiaries

The rule is aimed at beneficiaries aged 19 to 64 whose incomes are up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks after taking the oath of office in Little Rock, Arkansas, on Jan. 10, 2023. AP Photo/Will Newton

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is asking the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to allow the state to impose a work requirement on certain Medicaid beneficiaries.

“I am submitting a waiver on behalf of the state of Arkansas to allow us to implement a work requirement for all able-bodied, working-age recipients of Arkansas’ Medicaid expansion program, ARHOME,” said the Jan. 28 letter to HHS secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “There are 220,000 able-bodied, working-age adults in Arkansas receiving free health care courtesy of the taxpayer, costing us more than $2.2 billion each year—and growing.