HHS Approves Sec. 1115 Waiver in Arkansas: Effects on People with Disabilities

Executive Summary

The “Arkansas Works,” Medicaid waiver project approved by Trump’s HHS, if implemented, will block thousands of low-income people living with disabilities in Arkansas from accessing Medicaid. National Health Law Program Senior Policy Analyst David Machledt explains how Arkansas’s waiver scheme, which provides no “resources or initiatives for employment supports that facilitate work,” will add to the obstacles that people living with disabilities face in accessing health care in Arkansas. “People with disabilities,” Machledt writes, “will be among those most negatively affected by administrative snafus, inadequate notice, insufficient accommodations, and not enough employment supports to meet their needs.”