LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders has submitted a waiver to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, seeking approval to implement a new work requirement.
In a letter to HHS Secretary-Designate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Sanders asks to allow Arkansas to create a work requirement for all able-bodied and working-age recipients of Arkansas' Medicaid expansion program, ARHOME.
In the letter she claims that 220,000 "able-bodied", and "working-age" adults in Arkansas are receiving free healthcare, costing taxpayers over $2.2 billion annually. She also said that nearly 90,000 of these recipients are unemployed.
The Arkansas Department of Human Services will hold two public hearings in Arkansas over the new work requirement, dates and times have not been provided yet.
Read the full waiver sent to HHS here: