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PA Lawmakers Press Wolf Official On Medicaid Work Requirements

HARRISBURG, Pa. (CBS) -- During state budget hearings, Republican members jousted with a member of Governor Wolf's cabinet over Wolf's decision to veto a bill that sought to impose work-search requirements for Medicaid.

Governor Wolf last fall nixed a bill that had language addressing job search and training requirements for able-bodied Medicaid recipients.

Acting Human Services Secretary Teresa Miller took heat for that decision at House Appropriations Committee budget hearings.

"Everybody's who's unemployed and can work should be looking for a job, said Republican Stan Saylor the committee chairman. "I'm tired of excuses. The taxpayers of Pennsylvania are tired of excuses."

Miller responded that imposing work requirements on Medicaid would actually be costly.

"We have to build quite a bureaucracy and find a lot of funding to pay for that, for a small group of people," Miller said.

One Republican committee member retorted that the governor did not raise that issue in his veto letter.

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