For many years, Eric Wunderlin’s health issues made it hard to find stable employment.
Struggling to manage depression and diabetes, Wunderlin worked part-time, minimum-wage retail jobs around Dayton, Ohio, making so little he said he sometimes had to choose between paying rent and buying food.
But in 2018, his CareSource Medicaid health plan offered him help getting a job. It connected him to a life coach, who helped him find full-time work with health benefits. Now, he works for a nonprofit social service agency, a job he said has given him enough financial stability to plan a European vacation next year.
“I feel like a real person and I can go do things,” said Wunderlin, 42. “I feel like I pulled myself out of that slump.”
Republicans in Congress and several states, including Ohio, Iowa, and Montana, are pushing to implement work requirements for nondisabled adults, arguing a mandate would encourage enrollees to find jobs. And for Republicans pushing to require Medicaid enrollees to work, Wunderlin’s story could be held up as evidence that government health coverage can help people find employment and, ultimately, reduce their need for public assistance.
Yet his experience is rare. Medicaid typically does not offer such help, and when states do try to help, such efforts are limited.
And opponents point out that most Medicaid recipients already have jobs and say such a mandate would only kick eligible people off Medicaid, rather than impro …