In states that have long refused to expand Medicaid to more low-income adults, people in the program aren’t subject to new rules under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act requiring them to prove they’re working in order to get and keep coverage.
That’s not stopping Florida lawmakers from trying to adopt Medicaid work requirements anyway. It’s the only legislative body in a nonexpansion state to even consider it so far.
“You need to go to work if you want your friends and neighbors to pay for your health care,” said state Sen. Don Gaetz, the Republican sponsor of a Medicaid work requirement proposal making its way through the legislature.
The move baffles health care advocates and Medicaid experts. Some doubt it’s even legal under President Donald Trump’s signature domestic policy law.
“You cannot change the terms of the work requirement,” said Leo Cuello, an attorney and a professor at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, citing guidance issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. For Cuello, the answer is clear: “It’s a pretty easy no.”
Medicaid work requirements affect Washington, D.C., and the 40 states that have expanded Medicaid eligibility to all nondisabled adults ages 19 through 64 with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level, as prescribed under the Affordable Care Act. That’s an income of $22,025 a year for a single person.
Starting next January, those states must require people in their expansion groups to report at least 80 hours a month of work, education, or community servic …