09-04-2025
Medicaid work requirements: A 19th Century solution in search of an illusory problem
The author sees obvious parallels between the policies of the British government in its treatment of Irish peasants during The Great Famine (1845-1849) and modern Medicaid work requirements in the U.S. The thatched roof of the house in this image is being removed to prevent it being re-tenanted. Original publication - Illustrated London News - The Ejectment Of Irish Tenantry - pub. 16th December 1848 (Photo by Illustrated London News /)
What could the tragic 19th Century Irish potato famine have to do with modern Medicaid work requirements promoted by North Carolina Republicans?
As author Padraic Scanlan documents in a powerful new book, the parallels between what the men running the British Empire did to the peasants of Ireland nearly two centuries ago and the policies North Carolina legislative leaders are pursuing today are quite striking.
As Scanlan documents in horrific detail, one of the chief contributors to the famine — a disaster that caused more than 1.5 million people to die or flee the tiny country — was the refusal of the British politicians and landowners who ruled Ireland to distribute relief because they thought it would violate rules of the free market and encourage laziness among the peasants.
Sound familiar? It should.
The bottom line: Medicaid work requirements won't kill as many people as the pro-starvation policies of the British in Ireland, but some will die and the maddening arrogance of the policy makers in the two situations is essentially indistinguishable.
For NC Newsline, I'm Rob Schofield.
