03.05.2025 / Press Release

NEW FACT SHEET: Families USA Explains Medicaid Work Reporting Requirements Bureaucratic Burdens as a ‘Solution in Search of a Problem’

Work Reporting Requirements Add Unnecessary Red Tape, Threatening the Health and Financial Security of Working Families, Providers and Local Economies

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Nearly half of all Medicaid enrollees are at risk of losing their health care coverage under the bureaucratic burdens imposed by proposed federal work reporting requirements, according to a new fact sheet from Families USA. The fact sheet details how work reporting requirements are a solution in search of a problem, as more than 92% of the people who use Medicaid for health insurance are already working, or are otherwise caregivers, ill/disabled or are attending school.

Republican leaders in Washington and in states across the country have floated proposals to implement work reporting requirements, and several states have attempted it in the past. Where enacted, these requirements have a history of resulting in significant coverage losses for working families and fail to improve employment. In Arkansas in 2018, for example, 18,000 enrollees, or 25% of people subject to the reporting requirements, lost their Medicaid coverage in just seven months.

These proposals come just after House Republicans passed a budget resolution requiring more than $880 billion in cuts, mostly to Medicaid, which would result in millions losing coverage and undermine the health care system we all rely on.

“Work reporting requirements are bureaucratic burdens that make people fall off coverage. Those Americans who have Medicaid health coverage are overwhelmingly already working but in low-income jobs without health benefits, or are children, elderly, students, or are sick or caregivers. These requirements only add bureaucracy, cost taxpayers more money, and allow red tape and paperwork to get in the way of people trying to access the health care coverage they need,” said Anthony Wright, executive director of Families USA. “Republicans leaders have a budget that targets Medicaid, proposing severe cuts to the program both directly and indirectly with failed policy proposals. If the Trump administration is serious about making America healthy again, they will stop these efforts to rip health care away from millions of Americans and instead advance solutions that actually improve health care and lower costs for families.”

Families USA, the longtime health care consumer advocate, is organizing with groups across the nation to protect Medicaid from severe cuts, caps or other regulations that will result in millions of Americans losing access to the health care they need. Earlier this year, Families USA led hundreds of organizations to call on Congress and the Trump administration to reject cuts to Medicaid and work to make health care more affordable, not less.

For more information on how Medicaid matters to people, the economy and the health care system, additional fact sheets are available here.