After a Tyson Foods meatpacking plant closed in Nebraska in January, eliminating about 3,000 jobs, the state secured a temporary reprieve from new Medicaid work requirements for residents of the surrounding county.
Nebraska began enforcing work requirements in May, requiring most adults ages 19 to 64 covered through Medicaid expansion to work, attend school or volunteer 80 hours a month to get or maintain health coverage. A month later, the state sought federal approval to exempt residents of Dawson County, where unemployment had surged following the plant’s closure.
Missouri is one of just three states that have decided not to offer similar protections when the federal requirements take effect nationwide Jan. 1…