Supreme Court to review rulings against Trump’s Medicaid work rules

Lower courts had rejected President Donald Trump’s Medicaid overhaul.

The Supreme Court on Friday said it would consider the Trump administration’s request to reinstate work rules for some Medicaid enrollees, even as President-elect Joe Biden will look to wind down his predecessor’s conservative remake of the safety net health care program.

The justices will hear appeals of lower court rulings that overturned the Trump administration’s approval of programs in Arkansas and New Hampshire requiring some low-income adults to work, volunteer or attend school as a condition of receiving coverage.

Why it matters: The work requirements are one of the Trump administration’s signature health care policies and embraced by many Republican-leaning states, especially those that joined Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid to poor adults. But the work rules — the first ever in the entitlement program’s 55-year history — were strongly opposed by Democrats and patient advocates who challenged them in court. Continue reading.