Eventually, it had to happen. The question is, what comes next?
A little more than a year ago, I asked two simple questions in my columns “Entitlements? ‘Woe is me’ is contagious” and “Entitled and trapped: Welfare rolls on:” Why can’t able-bodied people work for benefits they are getting — and who mandated that social services has to be a handout?
I pointed out in the columns and on the early morning talk show, The Talk of Connecticut, that we’re spending so much money on able-bodied people that other serious challenges and issues we face in Connecticut are at or past crisis levels — such as funding more services for veterans, the mentally ill and physically disabled and prison reform.
Most readers agreed with me that it was a problem that appeared to be getting worse and something needed to be done.
Enter Kentucky.
The Bluegrass state became the first in the nation to change the rules and pass a law requiring able-bodied people who collect Medicaid to work. The move comes after President Donald Trump cleared the path for states to make the changes.
Under the new rules in Kentucky, people on Medicaid will need to work 80 hours a month, be going to school, getting job-training, volunteering or providing caregiving — or any combination of the above. In addition, they must monthly provide the state proof of compliance.
Republican governors in Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Wisconsin and Utah are following suit with pending applications before the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service to implement the same measures.
Matt Bevin, Kentucky’s Republican governor, says the new rules will help people become more economically self reliant and reduce ill health that come from bad habits.
I am cheering but health care advocates are in a tizzy, drawing battle lines by firing up the lawsuits to block the measure.
But I don’t understand why. What is the problem with asking able-bodied people to work for the services they need?
To me, handing people the things they need only serves to keep them dependent on the government — or rather the taxpayers — and lowers their self-esteem and dilutes their ambition.
But while I cheer the move by Kentucky, there is another side to this that is worrisome whether you agree with what the Bluegrass state is doing or not.
The government — whether in Kentucky or here in Connecticut — just can’t throw people off social programs and then fail to provide them with what they need to succeed.
We have a serious problem with paying people decent wages in this country. I believe most people want to work but millions of hourly workers are hit with a double whammy — low wages in our high-dollar economy and work schedules that don’t add up to 40 hours.
Taxpayers have screamed for the government to step in, revamp social services and get people back to work.
So, it will be a real curiosity to see what happens in Kentucky.
Assistance? The drumroll starts in the South.
But will it work?
James Walker is the Register’s senior editor. He can be reached at 203-680-9389 or james.walker@hearstmediact.com. Follow him on Twitter @thelieonroars