(C) Common Dreams
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If Medicaid cuts include work requirements, people may lose health coverage as a result, research finds [1]
['Lorie Konish']
Date: 2025-03-09
Protect Our Care supporters display "Hands Off Medicaid" message in front of the White House ahead of President Trump's address to Congress on March 4 in Washington, D.C.
Cuts to Medicaid will have to be on the menu if House Republicans want to meet their budget goals, the Congressional Budget Office said in a report this week.
The chamber's budget blueprint includes $880 billion in spending cuts under the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees the program.
Medicaid helps cover medical costs for people who have limited income and resources, as well as benefits not covered by Medicare such as nursing home care.
To curb Medicaid spending, experts say, lawmakers may choose to add work requirements. Doing so would make it so people have to meet certain thresholds, such as 80 hours of work per month, to qualify for Medicaid coverage.
Republicans have not yet suggested specific changes to Medicaid. However, a new KFF poll finds 6 in 10 Americans would support adding work requirements to the program.
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Imposing work requirements may provide a portion of lawmakers' targeted savings. In 2023, the Congressional Budget Office found implementing work requirements could save $109 billion over 10 years.
Yet that change could also put 36 million Medicaid enrollees at risk of losing their health-care coverage, estimates the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. That represents about 44% of the approximately 80 million individuals who participate in the program. The estimates focus on adults ages 19 to 64, who would be most likely subject to a work requirement.
The idea of work requirements is not new. Lawmakers have proposed work hurdles to qualify for other safety net programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
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[1] Url:
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/09/how-work-requirements-may-reduce-access-to-medicaid.html
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