House Republicans’ Plan for Medicaid Emphasizes Work Requirements

On Sunday evening, May 11, the leaders of the House Republican Caucus in the U.S. Congress released the details of their plan to make considerable cuts to the Medicaid program, one that critics say will cause millions to lose health insurance coverage, but which avoided earlier, more drastic plans.

The New York Times’s Margot Sanger-Katz and Catie Edmonson wrote on Monday morning, May 12, that “The proposal, which is one piece of a sweeping bill to enact President Trump’s domestic agenda, including large tax cuts and increased military spending, omits the structural changes to Medicaid that ultraconservative Republicans have demanded. Instead, it bows to the wishes of a group of more moderate and politically vulnerable G.O.P. lawmakers whose seats could be at risk if they embraced deep Medicaid cuts. It was published late Sunday night by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which under the G.O.P. budget blueprint had to find $880 billion in savings over a decade. The panel is scheduled to meet on Tuesday afternoon to debate and refine the package.”

Sanger-Katz and Edmondson noted that, “Overall, the legislation would reduce federal spending by an estimated $912 billion over the decade and cause 8.6 million people to become uninsured, according to a partial analysis from the Congressional Budget Office that was circulated by Democrats on the committee. Most of those cuts —$715 billion — would come from changes to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. The legislation’s remaining savings would come largely from changes in energy policy, including the repeal of two Biden-era regulations that affect car pollution and auto efficiency,” they wrote.

What many are noting is that, while the proposed bill “tries to split the difference between Republicans agitating for deep cuts to Medicaid and those eager to protect their states from changes that could force them to shoulder much higher costs,” it adds work requirements for single, childless adults “mandating that they prove they are working 80 hours every month to stay enrolled. That is a less flexible version of a work requirement briefly imposed in Arkansas in 2018 that caused 18,000 people to rapidly lose coverage.”

To read the full article, see "House Republicans' Plan for Medicaid Emphasizes Work Requirements," which originally appeared on Healthcare Innovation, an Endeavor Business Media partner site.