Scott Walker Calls for Childless Medicaid Recipients to Be Drug Tested

Wisconsin could become the first state to test childless adults for drugs as a condition of receiving Medicaid benefits, WITI-TV reported.

The initiative, which has been spearheaded by Republican Gov. Scott Walker, is part of an ambitious program which would seek to impose a work requirement on adult recipients of both Medicaid and food stamps.

The Republican-controlled state legislature has already approved a waiver for such a plan, but hasn’t quite worked out the details yet. The Obama administration refused to provide the federal waiver necessary for such a plan, although the Trump administration may be more amenable to the plan.

The welfare reform package is part of Walker’s insistence that the safety net ought to be a “trampoline, not a hammock,” something he’s made a cornerstone of his push for a third term in office. Needless to say, that’s rankling a lot of liberals.

“It would be an extremely negative development because it treats drug addiction as a moral failing rather than a disease,” said Jon Peacock, research director of the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families.

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“It says that we’re going to test people first as a condition of getting access to health care, which is backwards. We need to get people into health care programs, build trust with their doctors and then get them the treatment they need.”

Illegal drugs are illegal for a reason, and starting them almost always requires an act of volition on the part of the users. At a time when millions of people who don’t qualify for Medicaid can’t afford health insurance thanks to Obamacare, we’re giving taxpayer-supported health care to those who choose to spend their money on illicit substances.

It’s also worth pointing out that, as the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported, Walker’s plan offers treatment for those who fail the drug tests. In fact, the state will use taxpayer money for those who fail tests. Only those who refuse treatment would lose benefits for six months.

That actually sounds like a pretty humane plan. It means that Walker and the Republicans want to get people treatment for drug addiction, while Democrats think that drug addicts should get handouts whether they’re willing to quit or not.

This seems like a fairly solid model for treating addiction-related poverty, which leads me to believe that the left simply doesn’t want it treated. And liberals wonder why states like Wisconsin are turning red.

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