LIA waiver denied

The administration’s plan to apply an asset test to families of young people in the Low Income Adults program (formerly SAGA) was not approved by the federal Medicaid agency Friday. Advocates objected to the plan stating that it was designed to address a problem that rarely happens, college-aged children in wealthier families on Medicaid, and it would have further stressed an already overwhelmed DSS. In their denial letter, HHS stated that “eliminate[ing] coverage for as many as 13,381 very low-income individuals” is “not consistent with the general [Medicaid] statutory objective to extend coverage to low-income populations.”