The Cruelty is the Entire Point

Congratulations to South Carolina, which has pulled off the exacta of not accepting the Medicaid expansion and imposing work requirements on LyndonCare:

Days after the Trump administration finalized a proposal that will kick hundreds of thousands of people off food stamps, the state of South Carolina delivered its own special holiday present to the poor. On Thursday afternoon, Seema Verma, the director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, joined South Carolina governor Henry McMaster to announce new work requirements for Medicaid recipients. South Carolina is now the first non-Medicaid expansion state to receive a waiver that will make the program more restrictive…

As a result of the waiver, able-bodied people who receive Medicaid will now have to work or participate in some “community engagement activity” 80 hours per month, the Charleston Post and Courier reports.
Experts say the waiver will take Medicaid away from around 14,000 people over the next five years. Most are mothers, and they are disproportionately likely to be women of color who live in rural areas. “We do think this will have a profound negative impact on Medicaid recipients,” Sue Berkowitz of the South Carolina Appleseed Justice Center told the Greeneville News.

And speaking of random acts of cruelty, thanks again John Roberts!