LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – As the 2025 Arkansas legislative session nears, state legislators and policy advocates are looking closer at how the presidential election and upcoming leadership will impact policies, specifically with Medicaid.
During President-elect Donald Trump’s first term, Arkansas put a work requirement into place in June 2018, though a judge struck it down in 2019.
Arkansas lawmakers propose new program to replace AR Works
The Arkansas policy required nondisabled Medicaid recipients aged 30-49 to work 20 hours per week, engage in an equivalent amount of community activities or submit an exception.
House Minority Leader State Rep. Andrew Collins (D-Little Rock) called the results of that policy a “disaster,” saying people were getting thrown off because they couldn’t complete the online computer form registering the work they were doing.
Nic Horton, founder and CEO of Opportunity Arkansas, took a line against that statement, telling FOX 16 News the problem was not the online reporting but not enough people working. Horton is now pushing for the legislature to take up welfare reform and add work requirements for nondisabled Arkansans on Medicaid this legislative session.