美国国家公共电台 NPR Rural Seasonal Workers Worry About Montana Medicaid's Work Requirements

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

Making people verify their job status before getting Medicaid has been a hot idea among Republicans since President Trump¹ took office. But after a federal judge blocked some states from doing it, there's been a chilling effect. But Montana is sticking with its plan, which starts in January. Corin Cates-Carney of Montana Public Radio says that's causing worry for residents who work rural or seasonal² jobs.

CORIN CATES-CARNEY, BYLINE³: Helmville, Mont., has a saloon, two churches, a school that goes through eighth grade and a post office and lots of sweeping⁴ ranchland surrounded by mountains.

(SOUNDBITE OF COWS MOOING)

CATES-CARNEY: Twenty-eight year old Kate Clyatt works here as a ranch⁵ hand. It's time to move cattle, so she coils up an electric fence on a spool⁶ and whistles to encourage the herd⁷ to move through.

KATE CLYATT: (Whistling).

CATES-CARNEY: Clyatt is wearing a pearl snap-collared plaid tucked into blue jeans, and a sweat-stained cap keeps the sun from her eyes. She's got a brace⁸ on her right wrist, a recent injury from rolling a four-wheeler. When she could no longer receive health insurance under her parents' coverage⁹, she signed up for Montana's Medicaid expansion program.

CLYATT: Ranching¹⁰ is just not a job that has a lot of money in it, right? And so I don't know at what point I'm going to be able to get off of Medicaid.

CATES-CARNEY: Clyatt says it's a hard way to make a living, but she loves working outside. Clyatt doesn't keep track of her hours. She gets paid by the month. And she's unclear how that might fit into Montana's new law. It says certain people on Medicaid need to work or be in school, rehab or other service activities for at least 80 hours a month.

CLYATT: There's a lot of seasonal work in our parks, in our forest systems, in guiding, bringing income into the state. I mean, there's just a lot of seasonality¹¹ to a lot of kind of the quintessentially Montana jobs.

CATES-CARNEY: The new law tries to take seasonal workers into account, but the state still hasn't worked out all the details. The work requirement starts in January. For rural workers like Clyatt, the reporting process could be difficult. She says she only gets cell service at the stop sign on the edge of town. When Arkansas put in place similar work requirements, 18,000 people lost coverage.

Heather O'Loughlin is with the Montana Budget and Policy Center, an organization that advocates for people on low incomes.

HEATHER O'LOUGHLIN: It's important to note that we could see a loss of coverage of those that are currently enrolled¹² accessing health care coverages.

CATES-CARNEY: State health officials estimate up to 12,000 people could lose health coverage in Montana. The policy passed the Montana Legislature with unanimous support from Democrats¹³ and was signed by Governor Steve Bullock. He's based his presidential run on his track record of political wins in a conservative-leaning state.

This new law was a political compromise. The Medicaid expansion was going to expire this summer, but Republicans refused to renew it without a work requirement. Republican State Representative Ed Buttrey carried the bill. He expects some people will lose coverage but says the requirements are not meant to be punitive¹⁴.

ED BUTTREY: We never set a number of people to try to purposely disenroll. We wanted to find out how many folks were truly able-bodied and non-working that should be doing more to benefit themselves and their family but weren't.

CATES-CARNEY: There's still one more step. Montana needs federal approval for the work requirement and might not get an answer for months. Almost 9% of Montanans are on Medicaid. And just like in other states, most of them are already working.

For NPR News, I'm Corin Cates-Carney in Helena.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: This story came to us from NPR's reporting partnership¹⁵ with Montana Public Radio and Kaiser Health News.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 seasonal   

adj.季节的，季节性的

参考例句：

• The town relies on the seasonal tourist industry for jobs.这个城镇依靠季节性旅游业提供就业机会。
• The hors d'oeuvre is seasonal vegetables.餐前小吃是应时蔬菜。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 sweeping   

adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的

参考例句：

• The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
• Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗？

5 ranch   

n.大牧场，大农场

参考例句：

• He went to work on a ranch.他去一个大农场干活。
• The ranch is in the middle of a large plateau.该牧场位于一个辽阔高原的中部。

6 spool   

n.（缠录音带等的）卷盘（轴）；v.把…绕在卷轴上

参考例句：

• Can you wind this film back on to its spool?你能把这胶卷卷回到卷轴上去吗？
• Thomas squatted on the forward deck,whistling tunelessly,polishing the broze spool of the anchor winch.托马斯蹲在前甲板上擦起锚绞车的黄铜轴，边擦边胡乱吹着口哨。

7 herd   

n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• He had no opinions of his own but simply follow the herd.他从无主见，只是人云亦云。

8 brace   

n. 支柱,曲柄,大括号; v. 绷紧,顶住,(为困难或坏事)做准备

参考例句：

• My daughter has to wear a brace on her teeth. 我的女儿得戴牙套以矫正牙齿。
• You had better brace yourself for some bad news. 有些坏消息,你最好做好准备。

9 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

10 ranching   

adj.放牧的

参考例句：

• They cleared large tracts of forest for farming, logging and ranching. 他们清除了大片的森林以经营农耕、采伐与畜牧。
• This is a trade center in a ranching and oil-producing region. 这是一个牧场与产油区的贸易中心。

11 seasonality   

季节性

参考例句：

• a high degree of climatic seasonality 明显的季节性气候变化
• Confinement. Seasonality of tourist trade, animals often 'contracted' to work. 限制，在旅游旺季时，动物们通常都得被迫“上工”。 来自互联网

12 enrolled   

adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起

参考例句：

• They have been studying hard from the moment they enrolled. 从入学时起，他们就一直努力学习。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He enrolled with an employment agency for a teaching position. 他在职业介绍所登了记以谋求一个教师的职位。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 punitive   

adj.惩罚的，刑罚的

参考例句：

• They took punitive measures against the whole gang.他们对整帮人采取惩罚性措施。
• The punitive tariff was imposed to discourage tire imports from China.该惩罚性关税的征收是用以限制中国轮胎进口的措施。

15 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。