By skyforbes 
Not once, but three times
Why should you care?
The House has voted to pass a budget bill that could strip up to $880 billion from Medicaid over the next decade (Métraux, 2025). The effect will be devastating. There are around 70 million Americans enrolled in Medicaid: Half of those are children (Métraux, n.d.). Adding work requirements has been debated: According to Mother Jones (Métraux, n.d.), in my home state that has cost over $85.9 million so far, three-quarters of it in consulting fees. It does not save money.
(Strictly as an aside, it has been my experience that many providers will not complete disability paperwork that would protect people from this requirement. Some are financially unable, with large proportions of their practice under Medicaid, others are just ableist and don’t think anyone should “get a pass” due to disability. I was interested to see that impression confirmed in a recent study that you can read — for now, until they finish gutting the National Institutes of Health— at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35977164/.)
Ten states have refused to adopt Medicaid expansion (“Status of State Medicaid Expansion Decisions,” 2025), meaning that not only will all states be scrambling to find the money to replace lost federal funds but these will have no infrastructure in…