Pushing People Off Medicaid

May 4, 2026

As part of the Affordable Care Act, more than 40 states and the District of Columbia expanded eligibility to Medicaid to more low-income people who have no health insurance through an employer. Now Trump and his friends in Congress pushed through a bill that will put work requirements on many Medicaid recipients, starting the first of next year.

The new law requires those who are able to be a student at least part-time, or work, or take part in certain activities like community service for at least 80 hours a month, or about 20 hours a week. It allows exemptions for the disabled or those who can prove themselves to be “medically frail.” In some states, people who live in counties with high unemployment or those admitted to a hospital or nursing homes would be exempt from working, but not in all states.

Medicaid was put in place along with Medicare in 1965. It was a gain won during the period of the Civil Rights Movement and the beginning of other social movements of the 1960s. With those movements now long past, the wealthy capitalist ruling class is looking for ways to make cuts, and these work requirements are their latest attempts to make more.

To do so, they’re counting on the confusing bureaucratic burden of proving they meet the work requirements, to cause people to be disqualified from Medicaid healthcare coverage. The Congressional Budget Office estimates this will add 4.8 million Americans to the rolls of the uninsured by 2034 due to the new work rules.

Right-wing politicians and their friends like Dr. Oz, the current administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, try to make us view people on Medicaid as the ones making workers pay high taxes. Never mind that the corporations and the wealthy are the real parasites on this society!