Here is an oldie (looks like 2019) that is still SO relevant (2 minutes)

This may come as a real surprise to many of the MAGA congress members spouting the “waste, fraud and abuse” BS but most people who are enrolled in Medicaid are already working. As a matter of fact I recall that just a few years ago Medicaid was Walmart’s medical benefit for its “associates” or employees since pay was so low they could qualify.

As you have heard me scream over and over and over we could simply save so much more money and lives if we simply went to universal health care. You would think that if MAGAs were as sincere about wanting to save money they would be 100% for universal health care. So you can discard any thoughts that MAGAs want to save money and lives. That is theater.

Since we are currently stuck in the MAGA version of reality which is truly divorced from true reality, I shall turn to Robert Reich to put some true reality around the MAGA call for work requirements. This should be required reading for any MAGA congress critter:

Right now, the Senate is taking up Trump’s “Big Beautiful Budget Bill” (really a Big Bad Ugly bill) that just emerged from the House.

If enacted, it would be the largest redistribution of income in the nation’s history — from the poor and working class to the rich and super-rich.

How? The tax cut mainly benefits the wealthy. A major source of funding is at least $715 billion of cuts in health care spending, mostly from Medicaid. 

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The bill cuts Medicaid spending by requiring Medicaid recipients to work.

Republicans are spreading lies about this work requirement.

Here are the facts you need to know — and share:

1. 64 percent of adult Medicaid recipients already work.

Many recipients work in jobs that don’t typically offer health insurance and pay little — which makes Medicaid vital. These people aren’t freeloaders mooching off the system, as Republicans claim. They’re barely scraping by.

2. Adults on Medicaid who aren’t working have good reasons not to.

— 12 percent are primary caregivers.

— 10 percent have an illness or disability.

— 7 percent are attending school.

3. So, 93 percent of all Medicaid recipients are either already working or have good reason not to.

The entire work requirement would affect 7 percent at most. In reality, a work requirement would cause many more who are now eligible for Medicaid to lose their Medicaid coverage. The current estimate is at least 8.6 million people.

4. The work requirement kicks eligible people off Medicaid because of its burdensome and confusing reporting requirements.

It’s not really meant to put people to work. It’s a shady way of kicking people off Medicaid to fund tax cuts mainly for the wealthy.

In Arkansas, which tried a work requirement for Medicaid, more than 18,000 people who were eligible lost their coverage when the work requirement was put in place, mainly because of the paperwork reporting hoops they had to jump through.

5. When Arkansas enacted work requirements, there was no significant change in employment rates.

Because, again, Medicaid recipients already have high rates of employment to begin with.

6. If Republicans really want to put people to work, they’d make it easier to get Medicaid — not harder.

After Ohio expanded Medicaid, enrollees had an easier time finding and holding down a job.

Access to health care means people can manage chronic conditions, afford medication, and receive mental health treatment — all of which help people keep their jobs.

Republicans are spouting lies about a work requirement for Medicaid because they’re really trying to push eligible people off it — to help finance their big tax cut mainly for the rich.

Remember: Senate Republicans can afford to lose only three Republican votes. Otherwise, the Big Bad Ugly bill is dead. Please share these facts, and make sure the bill dies.

Call your senators ASAP. Be sure to call their local offices. You are more likely to get through to talk to a live person

Here is Ernst’s contact page: https://www.ernst.senate.gov/contact

Here is Grassley’s contact page: https://www.grassley.senate.gov/contact/