Utah to Test Community-Service Mandate for Medicaid Patients

Utah officials are considering an experimental program to require a small group of Medicaid recipients to perform community work in exchange for their health coverage, writes The Salt Lake Tribune.

The state Utah Department of Health will hold public meetings Thursday and next week for public comment on the type and amount of charity work to be required under the pilot program, which must be approved by the federal government. Children, seniors, and disabled people would be exempt from the requirement.

State Rep. Ronda Menlove, who introduced the idea, said the intent is to empower recipients of the low-income federal health coverage by allowing them to “give something back.” Advocates for the poor questioned whether the community service would justify the extra work health officials will have to put in to track patients’ charity service.

“You can do this for philosophical reasons but you have to ask what you’ll achieve for all the effort,” said Jason Cooke of the Utah Health Policy Project, a nonprofit advocacy group.