In 2017, Arizona requested to add a lifetime cap and work requirements to Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS), our federal Medicaid program. In 2018, the request was approved and AHCCCS set to implement the program on January 1, 2020. Arizona is one of seven states who were approved by the federal government to add this particular requirement. The other six states are: Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, New Hampshire and Wisconsin. Ten other states have also asked to add a similar work requirement using a different legal avenue.

Now two states, Kentucky and Arkansas, have had their work requirements questioned in Federal District Court and Arizona is waiting to see what the Court will say before implementing their own program. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg has said that he will “rule on both states’ programs by April 1”. Until there is a ruling the programs fate is uncertain. In the mean-time Arizona has stated the following on the AHCCCS Work Community Engagement Program, “Program is to begin no sooner than Summer 2020.”