GOP states plan for tougher Medicaid work requirements

Several Republican-led states are starting to craft Medicaid work requirement policies for next year that are more stringent than required by law, making it tougher for able-bodied adults to stay on the social safety net program. 

Several states with Republican governments, including Indiana, New Hampshire, Iowa, and others, are planning to do more than the minimum required under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed by President Donald Trump last year, to implement work requirements for nondisabled Medicaid enrollees, according to a new state survey from the health policy group KFF. 

Medicaid, the partially federally funded and state-administered health insurance program for low-income Americans, covers roughly 70 million adults and children nationwide and costs the federal government more than $900 billion annually.

Creating for able-bodied adults on the program was a central feature of the law, which requires that able-bodied enrollees aged 19 to 64 either work, be enrolled in school, or