By Alyssa Chen | Reporter
Good morning, Reformers.
Back in June, Minnesota and 23 other states sued the Trump administration over its implementation of new Medicaid work requirements from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The OBBBA requires adults who are eligible for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act’s expansion — generally, adults who make incomes of 100% to 138% of the federal poverty level — to prove that they are in school, working or volunteering. The federal law exempts some adults, including those who are deemed “medically frail,” i.e. if they have a physical or mental condition that leaves them unable to fulfill the requirement.
In the June lawsuit, states said that the administration’s then-released definition of medical frailty was unnecessarily narrower than what federal statute required and would make it harder for vulnerable people with significant health needs to be exempt from work requirements.
Leading medical organizations, including the American College of Physicians and the American Academy of Pediatrics, have now joined Medicaid enrollees from five states in filing a new lawsuit challenging that same administration rule over the medical frailty exemption.
Nada Hassanein at Stateline reports here.
Jan Carney, the president of the American College of Physicians said in a statement: “As physicians, we are trained to diagnose and treat our patients’ medical conditions, not to conduct assessments about a given patient’s ability to work. Forcing doctors into the position of making these assessments diverts their time away from providing needed and life-saving health care to patients.”
Work requirements in Minnesota begin on Jan. 1. The Department of Human Services has released guidance on exemption eligibility, as well as a renewal tool for non-exempt Medicaid recipients to fill out in advance of the renewal process.
Reach out if you or someone you know will be affected by work requirements or the medical frailty rule: [email protected].
(Getty Images)
By Matt Barnum
There’s been a puzzling trend over the past few decades: Adjusted for inflation, school funding has increased substantially, but teacher salaries have not. In recent years, real teacher pay has actually dipped as inflation surged.
That’s because as school districts have gotten more money, they’ve used it for other matters, including hiring more staff.
Matt Barnum at Chalkbeat interviewed an education expert to understand how schools are using their money and how strong the case is that they should spend it differently.
By Jennifer Shutt
The three news organizations that President Donald Trump has barred from entering the White House filed a lawsuit against the administration on Monday.
CNN, MS Now and Politico wrote in a joint statement the suit is intended “to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes.”
“Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting,” the statement continued. “Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.”
By Larry Baker
A retired research professor from the University of Minnesota's Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering writes in commentary that, in 1990, he thought people would never believe the results of climate modeling, at least not until they experienced it. He urges Minnesotans to pay attention to the wildfire smoke and heat they have experienced in recent years:
“Is this the year that the soot hit the fan? Thirty-six years after Hansen’s talk, have our eyes and ears and our experiences finally shown us that climate warming is very real and very dangerous, even in Minnesota?”
IN OTHER NEWS
What should Minneapolis do about Waymo? | MinnPost opinion from Bill Lindeke
How Trump Has Cracked Down on Dissent Since the Killing of Charlie Kirk | NYT (gift link)
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