Last year, congressional Republicans enacted the most significant entitlement reforms in recent memory. These changes are critical since Medicaid’s explosive growth in recent years has turned the program into an open-ended, $1 trillion-a-year entitlement.
Creating modest work requirements for able-bodied adults — with clear exemptions for vulnerable recipients — puts Medicaid on a more sustainable fiscal trajectory and ensures taxpayer dollars remain focused on caring for the needy.
Work requirements refocus a key safety net on its intended mission: serving as a last-resort lifeline for those who are unable to care for themselves. The mandate requires able-bodied adults to spend just 20 hours a week working, studying, or volunteering. No longer can young, healthy men in the prime of their working years waste their time playing video games on the taxpayers’ dime. Americans over the age of 64, people with disabilities, and parents of children under 13 years of age are entirely exempt from the work mandate. These groups will see no change in their benefit status.
Read the full story here.