President Donald Trump’s return to the White House sent a clear signal about Medicaid to Republicans across the country: Requiring enrollees to prove they are working, volunteering or going to school is back on the table.
The day after Trump’s inauguration, South Carolina GOP Gov. Henry McMaster asked federal officials to approve a work requirement plan. Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine plans to soon follow suit. Republicans in Congress are eyeing Medicaid work requirements as they seek to slash billions from the federal budget.
But, just as a second Trump administration reignites interest in work requirements, Georgia is proposing to scale back key parts of the nation’s only active program. And Arkansas announced an effort to revive — with fundamental changes — a program that ended after a legal judgment in 2019.
The Georgia and Arkansas proposals, from the only two states to have implemented Medicaid work requirements, reveal the disconnect between rhetoric behind such programs and the realities of running them, said consumer advocates and health policy researchers.
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