Latest news with #workrequirements
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Trump's agriculture secretary doubles down on suggestion people should work on farms to avoid losing Medicaid
Americans at risk of losing their Medicaid government health coverage because of new work requirements signed into law by the Trump administration should find employment on U.S. farms, according to Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. 'We have way too many people that are taking government program that are able to work,' Rollins said in an interview on Fox Business on Tuesday. 'This is not children. These are not disabled [people]. These are not senior citizens. These are able-bodied Americans who are taking government handouts.' In July, the Trump administration created new work requirements for Medicaid, a state-federal program providing healthcare to over 77 million mostly low-income people, as part of its One Big, Beautiful Bill spending package. Under the new requirements, passed alongside sweeping tax cuts disproportionately benefitting the rich, able-bodied people on Medicaid are required to show they have completed 80 hours of work or community service per month to maintain their coverage, with limited exceptions for parents and caretakers with young children, pregnant people, and other groups. The Congressional Budget Office, reviewing a draft version of the bill that passed the House, estimated the requirements would cause nearly 5 million people to lose coverage by 2034. Rollins has suggested that Medicaid recipients should head to the fields in the past. In July, in the face of concern that the administration's mass deportations would decimate the country's immigrant-heavy farm labor force, Rollins argued that 'more automation' and a '100 percent American workforce' could make up the losses. 'There are 34 million able-bodied adults in our Medicaid program,' he said. 'There are plenty of workers in America.' The Congressional Budget Office found that there were about 34 million working-age, non-disabled Medicaid enrollees in 2024, though analysts suggest Rollins is overstating the degree to which participants in the health program are unemployed and skimming from the government. An analysis from health policy group KFF found that there are about 26 million Medicaid-covered adults between the ages of 19 and 64 who don't receive disability benefits, and that nearly two-thirds of this group were working either full or part-time. Among the remaining portion, 12 percent said they were not working because they were caregiving, while 10 percent listed illness or disability and seven percent said school attendance kept them from working. Another study, from University of Massachusetts Boston researchers, found that among able-bodied, unemployed Medicaid recipients, almost 80 percent are female, their average age is 41, and their median individual income is $0. "It's clear based on their prior work history and family size/income that they are exceptionally poor and have likely left the workforce to care for adult children or older adults," researcher Jane Tavares told PolitiFact. "Even if these individuals could work, they would have very few job opportunities and it would come at the cost of the people they are providing care for." Other analysts point to states like Arkansas that have tried to use work requirements to cut costs and drive employment. The state, which attempted such requirements seven years ago, saw 18,000 people kicked off Medicaid rolls in the span of four months, yet saw no positive employment impact. 'There is not an epidemic of non-working able-bodied adults living high on Medicaid, despite such claims from the Trump administration,' Matt Bruenig, founder of the People's Policy Project, a progressive think tank, argued in a May op-ed in The New York Times. 'Medicaid work requirements are a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.' Among working-age Medicaid beneficiaries, about half are working, a quarter have a work-limiting disability, and an additional one-fifth will find employment or come off the program within 15 months, Bruenig said in the piece, leaving only about 6 percent of working-age Medicaid enrollees who probably can find work but haven't done so.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Trump's agriculture secretary doubles down on suggestion people should work on farms to avoid losing Medicaid
Americans at risk of losing their Medicaid government health coverage because of new work requirements signed into law by the Trump administration should find employment on U.S. farms, according to Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. 'We have way too many people that are taking government program that are able to work,' Rollins said in an interview on Fox Business on Tuesday. 'This is not children. These are not disabled [people]. These are not senior citizens. These are able-bodied Americans who are taking government handouts.' In July, the Trump administration created new work requirements for Medicaid, a state-federal program providing healthcare to over 77 million mostly low-income people, as part of its One Big, Beautiful Bill spending package. Under the new requirements, passed alongside sweeping tax cuts disproportionately benefitting the rich, able-bodied people on Medicaid are required to show they have completed 80 hours of work or community service per month to maintain their coverage, with limited exceptions for parents and caretakers with young children, pregnant people, and other groups. The Congressional Budget Office, reviewing a draft version of the bill that passed the House, estimated the requirements would cause nearly 5 million people to lose coverage by 2034. Rollins has suggested that Medicaid recipients should head to the fields in the past. In July, in the face of concern that the administration's mass deportations would decimate the country's immigrant-heavy farm labor force, Rollins argued that 'more automation' and a '100 percent American workforce' could make up the losses. 'There are 34 million able-bodied adults in our Medicaid program,' he said. 'There are plenty of workers in America.' The Congressional Budget Office found that there were about 34 million working-age, non-disabled Medicaid enrollees in 2024, though analysts suggest Rollins is overstating the degree to which participants in the health program are unemployed and skimming from the government. An analysis from health policy group KFF found that there are about 26 million Medicaid-covered adults between the ages of 19 and 64 who don't receive disability benefits, and that nearly two-thirds of this group were working either full or part-time. Among the remaining portion, 12 percent said they were not working because they were caregiving, while 10 percent listed illness or disability and seven percent said school attendance kept them from working. Another study, from University of Massachusetts Boston researchers, found that among able-bodied, unemployed Medicaid recipients, almost 80 percent are female, their average age is 41, and their median individual income is $0. "It's clear based on their prior work history and family size/income that they are exceptionally poor and have likely left the workforce to care for adult children or older adults," researcher Jane Tavares told PolitiFact. "Even if these individuals could work, they would have very few job opportunities and it would come at the cost of the people they are providing care for." Other analysts point to states like Arkansas that have tried to use work requirements to cut costs and drive employment. The state, which attempted such requirements seven years ago, saw 18,000 people kicked off Medicaid rolls in the span of four months, yet saw no positive employment impact. 'There is not an epidemic of non-working able-bodied adults living high on Medicaid, despite such claims from the Trump administration,' Matt Bruenig, founder of the People's Policy Project, a progressive think tank, argued in a May op-ed in The New York Times. 'Medicaid work requirements are a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.' Among working-age Medicaid beneficiaries, about half are working, a quarter have a work-limiting disability, and an additional one-fifth will find employment or come off the program within 15 months, Bruenig said in the piece, leaving only about 6 percent of working-age Medicaid enrollees who probably can find work but haven't done so.
The Independent
4 days ago
- Health
- The Independent
Trump's agriculture secretary doubles down on suggestion people should work on farms to avoid losing Medicaid
Americans at risk of losing their Medicaid government health coverage because of new work requirements signed into law by the Trump administration should find employment on U.S. farms, according to Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. 'We have way too many people that are taking government program that are able to work,' Rollins said in an interview on Fox Business on Tuesday. 'This is not children. These are not disabled [people]. These are not senior citizens. These are able-bodied Americans who are taking government handouts.' In July, the Trump administration created new work requirements for Medicaid, a state-federal program providing healthcare to over 77 million mostly low-income people, as part of its One Big, Beautiful Bill spending package. Under the new requirements, passed alongside sweeping tax cuts disproportionately benefitting the rich, able-bodied people on Medicaid are required to show they have completed 80 hours of work or community service per month to maintain their coverage, with limited exceptions for parents and caretakers with young children, pregnant people, and other groups. The Congressional Budget Office, reviewing a draft version of the bill that passed the House, estimated the requirements would cause nearly 5 million people to lose coverage by 2034. Rollins has suggested that Medicaid recipients should head to the fields in the past. In July, in the face of concern that the administration's mass deportations would decimate the country's immigrant-heavy farm labor force, Rollins argued that 'more automation' and a '100 percent American workforce' could make up the losses. 'There are 34 million able-bodied adults in our Medicaid program,' he said. 'There are plenty of workers in America.' The Congressional Budget Office found that there were about 34 million working-age, non-disabled Medicaid enrollees in 2024, though analysts suggest Rollins is overstating the degree to which participants in the health program are unemployed and skimming from the government. An analysis from health policy group KFF found that there are about 26 million Medicaid-covered adults between the ages of 19 and 64 who don't receive disability benefits, and that nearly two-thirds of this group were working either full or part-time. Among the remaining portion, 12 percent said they were not working because they were caregiving, while 10 percent listed illness or disability and seven percent said school attendance kept them from working. Another study, from University of Massachusetts Boston researchers, found that among able-bodied, unemployed Medicaid recipients, almost 80 percent are female, their average age is 41, and their median individual income is $0. "It's clear based on their prior work history and family size/income that they are exceptionally poor and have likely left the workforce to care for adult children or older adults," researcher Jane Tavares told PolitiFact. "Even if these individuals could work, they would have very few job opportunities and it would come at the cost of the people they are providing care for." Other analysts point to states like Arkansas that have tried to use work requirements to cut costs and drive employment. The state, which attempted such requirements seven years ago, saw 18,000 people kicked off Medicaid rolls in the span of four months, yet saw no positive employment impact. 'There is not an epidemic of non-working able-bodied adults living high on Medicaid, despite such claims from the Trump administration,' Matt Bruenig, founder of the People's Policy Project, a progressive think tank, argued in a May op-ed in The New York Times. 'Medicaid work requirements are a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.' Among working-age Medicaid beneficiaries, about half are working, a quarter have a work-limiting disability, and an additional one-fifth will find employment or come off the program within 15 months, Bruenig said in the piece, leaving only about 6 percent of working-age Medicaid enrollees who probably can find work but haven't done so.
CBS News
5 days ago
- Health
- CBS News
New Medicaid federal work requirements mean less leeway for states
When President Trump signed a law adding work requirements for some Medicaid recipients, he may have undercut lawmakers in at least 14 states who were designing their own plans, according to health industry observers. Georgia is the only state with a work requirement in place for Medicaid, but several states have been pursuing such a policy for years, only to be blocked by courts or, most recently, the Biden administration. Some seek state-specific touches to the new rules. Others aim to implement work requirements before the federal law takes effect at the end of 2026. These states' moves and Mr. Trump's massive tax-and-spending law share one demand: To keep their Medicaid health coverage, adults who can work must prove they're logging a minimum number of hours at a job or school, or else qualify for one of the few exemptions. But now, states that jumped ahead need to ensure their proposals, which require federal approval, don't stray too far from Mr. Trump's law. "The statute sets both the floor and ceiling" for work requirements, said Sara Rosenbaum, a health law and policy professor with George Washington University. South Dakota, for example, announced in July that it would not submit an application for work requirements as previously planned amid concerns that the state's laxer rules would not be allowed under the new federal law. The state's Department of Social Services secretary had warned that working on a state proposal while the federal rules are being hashed out could be "an exercise in futility." Arkansas' plan, on the other hand, is more stringent than the federal law. There are no exemptions to its work requirements in the application, which is pending with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Arizona's proposal also includes something that's not in the federal law: a ban on "able-bodied adults" receiving Medicaid benefits for longer than five years total in their lives. Arkansas and Arizona government officials said they were working with federal officials to square their plans with the new standards. Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said the department is analyzing how the new federal standards interact with state waivers. The federal health department must release rules by next June that outline how states are to implement work requirements, according to Elizabeth Hinton, who has been tracking such waivers as part of the Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured at KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News. "We don't exactly know what that will cover," Hinton said. It's unclear how federal officials will respond to the states' requests, she added, but "we are aware that some folks think there is no wiggle room here." States can tweak their Medicaid programs through what are known as demonstration waivers, which are subject to federal approval. The waivers are designed to test new ideas in policy gray areas. The states that have filed or plan to file such applications with work requirements include Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Utah. Congressional Republicans who passed the budget reconciliation bill left room for states to use waivers to fast-track the national standards. Tara Sklar, a professor leading the University of Arizona's Health Law & Policy Program, said she expects states seeking certain stricter requirements to have a chance of approval, while more lenient ones may face denials. Federal officials may look favorably on Arizona's plan, Sklar said, as a five-year lifetime Medicaid limit is different from work requirements. Even if the federal government greenlights stricter work requirements than the federal law calls for, those programs are likely to face legal challenges, she added. The federal law includes an 80-hour-per-month minimum for work or education, with exemptions for certain adults, including people who are medically frail and parents with young, dependent children. Montana is the first state to draft a waiver application since Congress finalized national work requirements. State lawmakers first approved work requirements — called "community engagement" standards under the state plan — in 2019, but the state's application stalled through the end of the first Trump term and the Biden administration. After Mr. Trump was elected again, Montana lawmakers lifted the 2025 expiration date of its Medicaid expansion program, making permanent the program that covered more than 76,000 adults in April, with the expectation that the Trump administration would approve work requirements. In mid-July, state officials released their draft plan to make that a reality "as soon as is practicable." The Montana plan largely aligns with the federal law, but it would create additional exemptions, including for people who are homeless or fleeing domestic violence. Republican state Sen. Gayle Lammers said work requirements that also protect such people who need Medicaid were a big part of persuading legislators to keep the expansion program. At the time, officials didn't know where the federal government would land on work requirements. And now, Lammers said, it makes sense for Montana to stick to its plan. "The state should have a say," Lammers said. "We're very independent, and everyone is different." In South Carolina, state officials are seeking to roll out work requirements for a limited number of newly eligible Medicaid beneficiaries. South Carolina is one of 10 states that has not expanded Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act, and yet the state submitted a request with the federal government in June for a partial Medicaid expansion that includes a work requirement component that largely reflects the new federal standards. In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, called South Carolina's proposal "a state-specific solution." The only state with an active work requirement program now wants to scale it back and awaits federal approval to do so. "Georgia Pathways to Coverage" expires at the end of September unless CMS greenlights an extension of the program with a key change: requiring enrollees to document once a year that they're working, not monthly. That's a pivot away from the program's initial design but also differs from the new federal rules, which call for checks every six months. Fiona Roberts, a spokesperson for Georgia's Medicaid agency, said the state is still waiting to hear whether it needs to alter its plan. So Georgia is among the states in limbo, awaiting guidance from the federal government. KFF Health News correspondents Sam Whitehead and Lauren Sausser contributed to this report. KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.
New York Times
14-07-2025
- Health
- New York Times
One Rural Doctor on the Real Cost of Medicaid Changes
Hosted by Natalie Kitroeff Featuring Shannon Dowler Produced by Anna FoleyOlivia Natt and Caitlin O'Keefe Edited by MJ Davis Lin With Diana NguyenPaige Cowett and Patricia Willens Original music by Elisheba Ittoop Engineered by Alyssa Moxley When Republicans passed their big domestic policy bill just over a week ago, they kept making the same argument about sweeping changes to Medicaid: that the measures, including new work requirements, would encourage able-bodied adults to earn their health care, ultimately creating a fairer system for everyone. Critics said the opposite: They have predicted that millions of working people who need health care will lose it. The truth will emerge in rural and often Republican-voting areas where cuts to Medicaid funding will be felt most deeply. Natalie Kitroeff spoke to a family doctor in one of those places, western North Carolina, about what she thinks will happen to her patients. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Shannon Dowler, a family physician and health advocate in western North Carolina. In North Carolina, President Trump's domestic policy law jeopardizes plans to reopen one rural county's hospital — and health coverage for hundreds of thousands of state residents. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted that the Senate's version of Trump's bill would mean that 11.8 million more Americans would become uninsured by 2034. There are a lot of ways to listen to 'The Daily.' Here's how. We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode's publication. You can find them at the top of the page. The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Michael Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, Nina Feldman, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Sophia Lanman, Shannon M. Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez, Brendan Klinkenberg, Chris Haxel, Maria Byrne, Anna Foley and Caitlin O'Keefe. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Paula Szuchman, Lisa Tobin, Larissa Anderson, Julia Simon, Mahima Chablani, Elizabeth Davis-Moorer, Jeffrey Miranda, Maddy Masiello, Isabella Anderson, Nina Lassam, Nick Pitman and Kathleen O'Brien.
