| The same federal judge who blocked Medicaid work requirements from taking effect in Kentucky nine months ago did so again on Wednesday, and he struck down similar requirements for Arkansas as well.  | D.C. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg granted summary judgment in favor of the Medicaid beneficiaries who sued to block each state's Medicaid waiver, which the Trump administration approved as part of a push to embrace what it describes as "community engagement" requirements. | | The HHS secretary keeps trying to advance Medicaid objectives that aren't rooted in the law itself, the judge ruled. |
A central objective of the Medicaid program is to provide healthcare to needy populations, Boasberg wrote. But the Health and Human Services secretary "continues to press his contention that the program promotes his alternative proposed objectives of beneficiary health, financial independence, and fiscal sustainability of Medicaid," Boasberg added, determining that the first two of those three goals are not rooted in the Medicaid Act. | 
