By: Catherine McKee, Jane Perkins, and Elizabeth Edwards
Executive Summary
If the Trump administration’s Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the state of Arkansas want to to “radically restructure” Medicaid, “then they must secure the consent of Congress. It is not for them to achieve that end by administrative fiat,” state the plaintiffs in a summary judgment motion filed in the Arkansas lawsuit challenging HHS’s approval of Arkansas’ legally flawed Medicaid waiver scheme, called the “Arkansas Works Amendment.” The plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment also states, HHS did not approve “Arkansas Works Amendment” to promote the objectives of Medicaid, “but to ‘fundamentally transform’ the Medicaid program through agency action.” The administrations CMS director issued a “State Medicaid Director Letter announcing a new policy establishing requirements for states that wish to condition medical assistance on compliance with work requirements, with minimal evidence for how work requirements will further Medicaid’s purpose.” Download the Arkansas plaintiffs’ entire summary judgement motion.
Click here to read all of the relevant legal documents in Gresham v. Azar.
