Millions of Americans count on Medicaid for health care, but Republicans want to make it harder than ever for working families to get the health care they need, all so they can hand out tax breaks to wealthy donors and corporations. Republicans plan to generate over $330 billion in funding for tax breaks for the rich by trapping workers in a maze of red tape designed to kick them off the rolls. At a time when people are struggling to afford the cost of living and facing economic uncertainty, Republicans are trying to rip away health coverage from the people who need it most – from school bus drivers to home care workers to grocery store clerks. Aside from children, most people who have Medicaid either work in a job that doesn’t provide health care, have disabilities, or are seniors in nursing homes. We’ve seen work requirements fail tremendously in every state that has attempted them from Arkansas to Georgia: throwing thousands of working people off the rolls, costing more to cover fewer people, and increasing health care costs for everyone. Americans deserve better than ineffective policies designed to kick millions off their health care to benefit the ultrawealthy.
CBPP: Work Requirements Will Harm Low-Paid Workers.
- “Many workers with unstable or seasonal jobs will lose coverage. Many Medicaid enrollees work in industries in which both employment and hours are volatile, sometimes on a week-to-week basis. The industries that employ the most adult working-age Medicaid enrollees include education, health and social services (e.g., hospitals, child care facilities, and schools), retail, and food service. CBPP analysis of 2019 survey data finds that among those [on Medicaid] who worked, 43 percent would have failed to meet an 80-hour work requirement in at least one month. Even among those who worked at least 1,000 hours over the course of the year — averaging about 80 hours per month — 25 percent would have failed the requirement in at least one month.”
- “Work requirements are burdensome and counterproductive. Ninety percent of adult Medicaid enrollees are already working or would be exempt from a work requirement, making it unnecessary to add red tape through a one-size-fits-all requirement.”
- “Medicaid work requirements do not increase employment, and the Congressional Budget Office found that a previous House proposal in 2023 would likely have led to coverage loss with “no change in employment or hours worked.”
- “Workers will have a hard time staying healthy, maintaining employment. Medicaid allows people to better manage their conditions and thus maintain employment, and coverage losses or interruptions will especially harm those with serious health needs. Among workers who gained coverage through Medicaid expansion in Ohio and Michigan, most reported that gaining coverage made them better at their jobs or made it easier for them to keep working.”
Brookings: Congress Is Debating Stricter SNAP And Medicaid Work Requirements – But Research Shows They Don’t Work.
- “Work requirements for Medicaid and SNAP are built on the assumption that recipients avoid work and need bureaucratic pressure—or a “stick”—to enter the workforce. However, research shows otherwise. Most SNAP and Medicaid recipients who can work are already working. Research consistently shows that additional work requirements do little than create administrative burdens and reporting systems that may push eligible participants out of the safety net.”
- “In the 2018 [Arkansas] experiment, 18,000 low-income individuals lost coverage in under a year—not necessarily because they failed to meet the 80-hour work requirement, but because they struggled with the complex reporting system. A subsequent study in Health Affairs found no significant increase in employment, but those who lost coverage faced severe consequences: 50% reported serious medical debt, 56% delayed care due to costs, and 64% postponed taking prescribed medications.”
Georgetown CCF: How Do We Know Congress’ Work Requirements In Medicaid Will Fail? They Already Have.
- “Georgia in 2023 implemented a partial Medicaid expansion with a work requirement. Although hundreds of thousands of Georgians would otherwise be eligible for health insurance in the new expansion, only 7,000 are enrolled because of the work requirement. The state has a roughly 3% success rate and hundreds of thousands of Georgians haven’t been able to get insured. (The only winners under Georgia’s model have been consultants, as my colleague Joan Alker has explained.) The Georgia failure is so abysmal that this year the state conceded the program isn’t working, and has filed a new amendment in a desperate attempt to fix the unfixable.”
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Work Requirements Threaten Health And Increase Costs.
- “Decades of research show that work requirements do not move people off assistance and into self-sufficiency; instead they increase costs to states and taxpayers, harm health, keep eligible people from obtaining needed assistance, terminate health insurance coverage and other benefits, and drive people and families—already struggling to make ends meet—deeper into poverty.”
- “Beyond harming individuals, work requirements are costly and inefficient. Tracking and enforcing work requirements requires states to invest millions in administrative oversight, diverting funds from direct assistance. Arkansas’ Medicaid work requirement cost $26.1 million to administer but failed to increase employment. And Georgia’s Medicaid program with work requirements cost more than $40 million in its first year, with nearly 80% of funds going to administrative and consulting fees rather than healthcare.”
Commonwealth Fund: States Could See A Loss of 322,000 to 449,000 Jobs [As A Result of Work Requirements].
- “Between 4.6 million and 5.2 million adults could lose Medicaid in 2026 if work requirements are imposed, cutting federal funding to states by $33 billion to $46 billion in the first year and $362 billion to $504 billion over a decade. States overall could see a $43 billion to $59 billion reduction in economic activity in 2026; a loss of 322,000 to 449,000 jobs; and a $3.2 billion to $4.4 billion reduction in state and local tax revenues.”