Medicaid work requirements proposed by Republicans cause worry among some recipients, including those already employed.

Medicaid work requirements proposed by Republicans cause worry among some recipients, including those already employed.

Millions of Low-Income Americans at Risk as House GOP Proposes Strict Work Requirements for Medicaid

In Garner, North Carolina, Joanna Parker, a local home goods store employee, relies on Medicaid for her medical needs, including doctor's visits, physical therapy, and pain medication. Without the program, she fears she would lose her ability to work. This is why she is concerned about the recently proposed Republican tax and spending cuts package currently making its way through Congress.

The bill, which narrowly passed the House last week, includes a provision called the work reporting requirement. This rule mandates that many Medicaid expansion enrollees, ages 19 to 64, work, volunteer, go to school, or participate in a job training program at least 80 hours a month to maintain their coverage. The requirement would go into effect by the end of 2026, but there are exceptions for certain groups, such as parents, pregnant women, medically frail individuals, and those with substance-abuse disorders.

Parker, who works up to 20 hours a week and suffers from degenerative disc disease, is worried she may not be able to meet the requirements, especially if she's unable to work enough hours every month or encounters difficulties in reporting her time on the job to the state. She has applied for full-time jobs over the past 18 months but has not received any responses.

If the work mandate becomes law, an estimated 4.8 million Medicaid recipients could become uninsured over a decade, according to a preliminary Congressional Budget Office analysis. However, this figure could grow due to last-minute changes to the House bill that accelerated the start date of the requirement.

While proponents argue that the mandate would prompt enrollees to find work and eventually move off of Medicaid, enrollees and their advocates fear that millions of people would lose their coverage under the proposed measure. Many argue that the policy lacks a clear understanding of the complexities facing low-income Americans and could result in unnecessary coverage losses due to bureaucratic hurdles and difficulties in meeting reporting requirements.

According to a recent Urban Institute report, more than 18,000 Medicaid enrollees in Arkansas, the first state to temporarily implement work requirements during Trump's first term, lost their coverage over several months, even though the state automatically exempted about two-thirds of those subject to the mandate.

Overall, the work reporting requirement is a key component of the Medicaid cuts envisioned in the bill. While it is intended to help preserve the program for the most vulnerable Americans and reduce spending on low-income adults who gained coverage through the Affordable Care Act's expansion provision, critics argue that it will likely cause undue hardship for many individuals and contribute to a significant increase in the number of uninsured Americans.

1. Joanna Parker, a home goods store employee, relies on Medicaid for her health-and-wellness needs, including doctor's visits, physical therapy, and pain medication.
2. Without Medicaid, Joanna fears she would lose her ability to continue working.
3. She is concerned about the recently proposed Republican tax and spending cuts package.
4. The bill includes a provision called the work reporting requirement, mandating work, volunteering, schooling, or job training for many Medicaid expansion enrollees.
5. The requirements would go into effect by the end of 2026, but there are exceptions for certain groups.
6. Joanna, who works up to 20 hours a week and suffers from degenerative disc disease, is worried she may not be able to meet the requirements.
7. She has applied for full-time jobs over the past 18 months but has not received any responses.
8. If the work mandate becomes law, an estimated 4.8 million Medicaid recipients could become uninsured over a decade.
9. This figure could grow due to last-minute changes to the House bill that accelerated the start date of the requirement.
10. Proponents argue that the mandate would prompt enrollees to find work and eventually move off of Medicaid.
11. However, enrollees and their advocates fear that millions of people would lose their coverage under the proposed measure.
12. Many argue that the policy lacks a clear understanding of the complexities facing low-income Americans.
13. The policy could result in unnecessary coverage losses due to bureaucratic hurdles and difficulties in meeting reporting requirements.
14. In Arkansas, more than 18,000 Medicaid enrollees lost their coverage over several months due to work requirements.
15. The work reporting requirement is a key component of the Medicaid cuts envisioned in the bill.
16. Critics argue that the mandate will likely cause undue hardship for many individuals and contribute to a significant increase in the number of uninsured Americans.
17. This issue is not limited to just health-and-wellness; it also impacts lifestyle, mental-health, fitness-and-exercise, and overall personal-growth, emphasizing the interconnectedness of various industries and policies, such as general-news, education-and-self-development, politics, finance, and personal-finance, with sectors like home-and-garden, food-and-drink, investing, banking-and-insurance, data-and-cloud-computing, technology, sports, football, NFL, sports-betting, and even relationships.

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