When Mississippi lawmakers couldn’t agree in 2024 on how to expand Medicaid, a major sticking point was the Senate’s firm insistence that the newly qualified would have to show they are working.
At the time, that requirement seemed to be a poison pill, since the Biden administration was almost certain not to approve a work requirement.
With Donald Trump about to move back into the White House, though, a work requirement becomes realistic. During the Republican’s first term, his administration approved the requests of several states to tie a work requirement to Medicaid expansion — waivers that were later rescinded when Biden and the Democrats took over.
There is a wrinkle, however, to Trump’s past friendliness to work requirements, Mississippi Today reports. These were only approved in states that had already expanded Medicaid and were looking for a way to reduce the number of qualifying beneficiaries. There was no case in which it was granted to states that were seeking to expand Medicaid for the first time.
Thus, insisting on a work requirement could still be a way to have a Medicaid expansion law that doesn’t end up doing any good.
