Stephanie Ivory counts on Medicaid to get treated for gastrointestinal conditions and a bulging disc that makes standing or sitting for long periods painful. Her disabilities keep her from working, she said.
Ivory, 58, of Columbus, Ohio, believes she would be exempt from a requirement that adult Medicaid recipients work, but she worries about the reporting process. “It’s hard enough just renewing Medicaid coverage every six months with the phone calls and paperwork,” she said.
In Warrenton, Missouri, Denise Sommer hasn’t worked in five years and relies on Medicaid to get care for anxiety, high blood pressure, and severe arthritis in her back and knees.
Sommer, 58, assumes she could easily qualify for an exemption with a doctor’s note. “There’s too much abuse in the system,” she said. She added that she doesn’t worry about others losing coverage for failing to meet reporting requirements.
“That’s their own fault, because they should just keep their address updated with the state and read their mail,” she said.
President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, sprawling legislation to extend his tax cuts and enact much of his domestic agenda, would require 40 states and the District of Columbia, all of which expanded Medicaid, to add a work requirement to the program. Enrollees would ha …