Nebraska Medicaid Sign-Ups Drop to 0 in May as 80-Hour Work Rules Start Early
Updated
Updated · PBS NewsHour · Jun 5
Nebraska Medicaid Sign-Ups Drop to 0 in May as 80-Hour Work Rules Start Early
3 articles · Updated · PBS NewsHour · Jun 5
Summary
Zero new Medicaid applicants were enrolled by the Health Center Association of Nebraska in May, down from its usual roughly 15 a month after the state imposed new work requirements on May 1.
Those rules require many expansion applicants to prove 80 hours of work, school, volunteering or similar activity in the prior month, and advocates say some people now assume they are ineligible or cannot manage the paperwork.
Nebraska moved eight months ahead of the federal Jan. 1, 2027 deadline, with about 72,000 people in its Medicaid expansion program; the first renewals affected are due at the end of July.
The Trump-backed law is expected by the Congressional Budget Office to save $326 billion over 10 years while about 5 million people a year lose coverage from 2029 to 2034.
Past state experiments suggest the risk is administrative churn as much as nonwork: Arkansas shed 18,000 enrollees in 2018, and researchers found most people subject to the rules were already working or should have been exempt.