As States Implement Medicaid Community Engagement Requirements, Due Process Safeguards Loom Large Sara Rosenbaum Alison Barkoff Allyson Crays April 15, 2026

https://www.healthaffairs.org/content/forefront/states-implement-medicaid-community-engagement-requirements-due-process-safeguards-loom For over a half century, the US Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Goldberg v. Kelly has guided the administration of public benefit programs aimed at helping people meet “brutal needs,” including medical assistance. Goldberg’s enduring holding is that means-tested public assistance programs can confer statutory legal entitlements to benefits. Therefore, before a state can deny, reduce, or terminate assistance, it must comply with the procedural safeguards required by the US Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment due process protections.