US lawmakers Aaron Bean (FL-04) and Rep. Scott Franklin (FL-18) have reintroduced a bill that will revamp the work requirements for healthy Americans.
Councillor Bean wants the requirement to apply to adults receiving Medicaid benefits that are not in school or without dependents.
According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Bean’s proposal would save taxpayers $109 billion over the next decade.
Workforce participation rates fell to 62.5% as the number of Medicaid people increased to over 93 million. The law requires healthy adults aged 18-65 who cannot work, volunteer or register at school, or vocational training programs, or 80 hours a month, combining all three combinations of three to 80 hours a month to be eligible for Medicaid benefits.
Medicaid job requirements have been changed in previous administrators. Under the Obama administration, they denied the state’s demand to require work as a condition for Medicaid eligibility.
In his first term, President Trump supported the state when applying for an exemption to implement labor requirements. But this all changed when Joe Biden was elected.
The Biden administration has revoked all state exemptions due to work requirements, saying the work requirements will not promote Medicaid goals.
Now, in his second term, the Trump White House is trying to support GOP measures to strengthen Medicaid work requirements.
“Today, Medicaid has over 1.5 million healthy adults, and we cannot ask hardworking Americans to pay for the services of our unemployed neighbors,” Rep. Bean said. “Imposing job requirements on healthy, undependent adults will not only allow common sense, but also working Americans to keep more of their hard-earned money.”
A 2023 Axios-IPSOS survey found that 63% of Americans support work requirements for the benefits of Medicaid and supplemental nutrition assistance programs.
