{"id":114346,"date":"2025-08-03T00:58:21","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T00:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/114346\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T00:58:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T00:58:21","slug":"medicaid-work-requirements-dont-work-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/114346\/","title":{"rendered":"Medicaid work requirements don\u2019t work. Here\u2019s why."},"content":{"rendered":"

Members of Congress argued that work requirements for Americans who get health care through Medicaid would help get lazy people off the couch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For example, Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va., said<\/a>, \u201cYes, if individuals don\u2019t want to look for jobs, if they don\u2019t want to look for work, then yes, you could lose Medicaid. But this is fairly straightforward and simple.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

This plan will cost an estimated <\/a>tens of thousands of working, disabled and low-income West Virginians to lose that care.<\/p>\n

Congress passed a gargantuan new law earlier this month that makes sweeping changes and nearly a trillion dollars in cuts to Medicaid.<\/p>\n

Experts say the work requirements provision will remove millions of people from the insurance program \u2014 because of crushing red tape requirements, not because they aren\u2019t working.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what West Virginians need to know:<\/p>\n

What are Medicaid work requirements?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The law<\/a> generally requires people on the Medicaid government program to either work, go to school, volunteer or participate in work programs for 80 hours per month.<\/p>\n

Certain people are exempt, including people who are pregnant, caretakers of disabled family members and the very ill.<\/p>\n

The law applies to roughly 80 million people nationwide, including about 23 million<\/a> covered by a 2014 Medicaid expansion for lower-income adults.\u00a0<\/p>\n

West Virginia\u2019s GOP representatives in Congress, Sens. Shelley Moore Capito and Jim Justice, and Reps. Riley Moore and Carol Miller all voted for the legislation.<\/p>\n

What has happened in places that have tried this approach?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2018, Arkansas implemented work requirements. Researchers later found<\/a> no significant change in employment among recipients.<\/p>\n

But within months, 18,000 people lost health coverage.<\/p>\n

Leo Cuello, a Medicaid policy analyst at the Georgetown Center for Children and Families, said many didn\u2019t know about the work requirement.<\/p>\n

In Georgia, policymakers implemented a new policy in 2023 making hundreds of thousands of new people eligible for Medicaid.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They also had to meet income requirements and prove they were working or volunteering.<\/p>\n

Analysts have found, of hundreds of thousands of eligible people, only about 8,000 have enrolled<\/a> and shown they\u2019re eligible<\/a> by completing lengthy applications that some people have difficulty understanding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some lost coverage because of requirements to report their hours and upload documents like pay stubs monthly. People without computers couldn\u2019t find in-person support at offices or get someone on the phone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine someone who does yard work in their neighborhood or cleans houses and gets paid in cash,\u201d Cuello said. \u201cHow are they going to prove that they are working?\u00a0<\/p>\n

West Virginia hasn\u2019t tried requiring Medicaid recipients to work. But state officials enacted work requirements for people who rely on food stamps.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A limited review by the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy found<\/a> no effect on the unemployment rate. But people who lost food stamps were found to lack shelter, computers and vehicles.<\/p>\n

What will happen to people who rely on Medicaid for health care?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cuello, of the Georgetown Center for Children and Families, said the argument that passing the bill will get people off the couch is just a talking point.<\/p>\n

He referenced a report by KFF, a news and health analysis nonprofit, which found<\/a> that in 2023, a vast majority of adult Medicaid enrollees were workers, students and people with disabilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what \u2018saves\u2019 $326 billion in this bill is taking health insurance away from all of these types of people,\u201d Cuello said. \u201cYou don\u2019t save $326 billion by targeting only a few people supposedly on a couch.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cIt saves money precisely because it fails<\/a> \u2013 as millions of people lose access to health insurance, the \u2018savings\u2019 for the federal government pile up.\u201d<\/p>\n

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