Michigan’s GOP has a plan to shield some people from Medicaid work requirements. They’re overwhelmingly white.

Michigan’s Discriminatory Work Requirements
But maybe not in Michigan. Last month, the State Senate passed a bill that would require Medicaid beneficiaries to find work or else lose their coverage.

Many of the legislators supporting Michigan’s work requirements come from rural districts with high unemployment. Many of those districts are predominantly white. To protect their constituents, these legislators have included a safety valve in the bill: If you live in a county with a high unemployment rate [[over 8.5 percent), you’re exempt from the work requirements. The rationale? When there are no jobs to be had, it doesn’t make sense to punish you for not working.

Yet that safety valve does not apply equally. Specifically, it does little for Michigan’s black residents, who are concentrated in cities like Detroit, Muskegon and Flint. Those cities suffer from chronically high unemployment rates, but they’re all in counties with low rates. The city of Flint, for example, has an unemployment rate of 10.4 percent; but in Genesee County, where Flint is located, the rate is just 5.8 percent. The upshot is that no one in Michigan’s biggest cities can take advantage of the safety valve — even if there’s no work to be had.
Satan's children serve him well.