Cong. Westerman Pushing Workforce Requirement Flexibility For Medicaid Expansion
by February 22, 2015 9:07 am 150 views
First-term Cong. Bruce Westerman, R-Hot Springs, is utilizing his previous legislative experience to push for a loosening of federal regulations on Arkansas and other states.
The former House Majority Leader, now representing the state’s Fourth Congressional District, was a guest on this week’s edition of Talk Business & Politics, which airs Sundays at 9 a.m. on KATV Ch. 7.
“There’s definitely benefit in serving in the state Legislature and understanding the state legislative process,” Westerman said. “All the issues I went through here in the state, learning about health care and Medicaid in particular, I think prepared me quite well to go to D.C. and talk about those issues.”
Earlier this month, Westerman filed his first bill – the State Flexibility and Workforce Requirement Act of 2015 – which allow states to create workforce incentives on non-disabled, working age individual Medicaid recipients without having to get the permission from federal officials.
The legislation would give Arkansas policymakers permission to set workforce requirements for Private Option recipients, a move that has been denied by the Obama administration to other states requesting the waiver.
“I believe in Arkansas that’s about 80,000 people from the data that I’ve seen, that have no income at all,” Westerman said. “The states should be allowed to design those programs that work best for the state. If they want to implement workforce requirements, then let them do that.”
When asked if he would have supported Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s proposal to end or extend the Private Option through 2016, Westerman said, “I’m not involved in that anymore, so I’m not going to weigh in too much on it, but I think everybody knows my record was I consistently voted against it.”
Westerman also added that he was hopeful that the current Congress, which is heavily Republican, would find more ways to cooperate with state legislatures.
“I think there will be a lot of emphasis on Republicans in Congress working more with state governments. There is a desire to see more state flexibility not just in creating workforce requirements, but in the way all of government is administered to give more power back to the states and to the local level,” he said.
Watch Westerman’s full interview below.