Are You at Risk of Losing Your Medicaid Due to Work Requirements?

Help us report on insurance coverage in your state.

SARINYAPINNGAM/Getty

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

In January, the Trump administration announced huge changes to Medicaid, the health insurance program for low-income Americans: It said it would support states imposing work or other “community engagement” requirements for those using the program. This would be the first time in the program’s history that states would be allowed to require Americans to work a certain number of work hours in order to be eligible. And though the work requirements include exemptions for those who are elderly, disabled, or pregnant, among others, the new policies could put millions of adults at risk of losing their insurance.

In order to implement the work requirements, states had to apply and be approved for waivers from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Since then, five states—Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin—have been approved. Ten more have applied.

In Arkansas, one of the first states to begin implementing the work requirements, nearly 12,300 people have already been disenrolled from Medicaid due to non-compliance, according to state data. Thousands more are at risk of losing their insurance. Other states with approved waivers, such as Indiana and Wisconsin, hope to implement the work requirements next year.

As we continue reporting on this issue, Mother Jones wants to hear from you: Are you at risk of losing coverage because your state has applied for Medicaid work requirements? Have you recently lost coverage? Let us know in the form below, send us an email at talk@motherjones.com, or leave us a voicemail at (510) 519-MOJO. We may use some of your responses for a follow-up story.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate