Overview

• Nationwide Medicaid work requirements will obligate able-bodied adults to report at least 20 hours per week of employment, volunteering, or schooling beginning in 2027.
• Administration officials maintain that federal Medicaid funding will increase by 20% over ten years and that the new rules target waste and fraud without disenrolling beneficiaries.
• Combined with permanent tax cuts for high earners and boosted border and defense spending, the bill’s reductions in Medicaid and SNAP are projected by the CBO to add $3.3 trillion to the deficit over the next decade.
• Nonpartisan analysts estimate as many as 15 million people could lose Medicaid coverage due to administrative hurdles, putting thousands of rural hospitals at risk and contributing to thousands of preventable deaths.
• Democrats plan to make the delayed welfare cuts a central issue in their 2026 midterm campaign, arguing the law breaks President Trump’s promise to leave benefits unchanged.