Some applicants may object to being forced to pee into a cup to get public benefits. But it may also simply be that they aren’t able to follow up and complete a test. Doing so could require arranging additional transportation, time off of work, childcare, or other logistical challenges in order to show up for a second visit to their state agency.
Walker thinks Trump’s administration is likely to allow him to implement drug testing. Tom Price, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, and Seema Verma, the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, sent a letter to governors welcoming proposals for “training, employment and independence.”
But his proposal has no evidence to back it up. Among the ten states that currently screen applicants to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families welfare program, just 321 people tested positive. In more than one state, not a single person tested positive. Overall, the positive drug test rates are lower than the national drug abuse rate.
Yet these states still wound up spending nearly $2 million, collectively, to implement drug testing regimes over two years. That’s money that could otherwise be spent on benefits for the needy.
Walker is proposing other changes to Medicaid as well, such as requiring single adults to pay premiums and copays for emergency room visits. Those who prove they don’t engage in risky behaviors such as drug and alcohol use, smoking, obesity, and failing to wear seat belts wouldn’t have to pay. He also wants to impose work requirements on able-bodied recipients between the ages of 19 and 49, which is likely to result in vulnerable people losing their health insurance.
All told, his changes to the program would cost an estimated $48 million a year to administer.
Article Appeared @https://thinkprogress.org/scott-walker-will-ask-trump-to-let-him-drug-test-poor-people-who-need-health-care-ae2cbbfac155