Nearly 4,400 people in Arkansas have lost Medicaid coverage because they didn't meet the new work requirements.

"People subject to the rules have to report 80 hours a month of work or other activity such as job training, education, or volunteering. If they’re out of compliance for three months out of the year, their coverage is revoked for the rest of the year.

"The Arkansas Department of Human Services on Wednesday said another 5,000 people on the program will lose coverage if they don’t meet the work requirement by the end of this month."

Gov. Matt Bevin's, R-Kentucky, plan for Medicaid work requirements was the first (January, 2018) state approved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Then, in June, 2018, a federal judge with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia blocked Kentucky's plan, saying,

CMS, had been “arbitrary and capricious” in approving Kentucky’s plan because it had “never adequately considered” whether Kentucky’s plan “would, in fact, help the state furnish medical assistance to its citizens, a central objective of Medicaid.”

Currently CMS is reviewing whether to re-approve Kentucky's plan.

These work requirement changes do not affect residents of Tennessee because there is no Medicaid expansion in Tennessee. Tennessee has lost nearly $11 billion in federal funding because of refusing to expand Medicaid. This does not take into account how many people have lost out on access to health care.