A #cancer diagnosis used to be enough. Now a state official reading a form…
A #cancer diagnosis used to be enough. Now a state official reading a form decides whether you're sick enough to skip work. Twenty-five states are suing
You have cancer. You are in chemotherapy. Under a rule the #Trump administration is now defending in federal court, that is not enough to keep your health insurance.
From January 1, 2027, low-income Americans on Medicaid must work 80 hours a month or lose their coverage. A cancer diagnosis will not exempt you. Neither will HIV. Neither will Parkinson's disease. You must also prove the illness "significantly impairs" your ability to work, a judgment that will be made not by your doctor but by a state bureaucrat reading a form. From January 2028, your word will no longer be accepted at all. You will need documentation.
On Thursday, a federal judge declined to block the rule while a lawsuit from 25 states and the District of Columbia proceeds. The rule comes from last year's One Big Beautiful Bill. The Congressional Budget Office puts the Medicaid cut at $1.02 trillion.
A Center for American Progress analysis of CBO and Joint Committee on Taxation figures found the tax cuts going to the top 1% come to roughly the same amount, about $1 trillion, over the same 10 years. CBO projects 11.8 million more people will be uninsured over the next decade. Around 5.7 million of them will lose Medicaid because they fail the work test or drown in the paperwork.
"One of the most significant factors in whether someone survives a cancer diagnosis is whether they have health insurance coverage," said Lisa Lacasse of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.
The American Medical Association, the American College of Physicians, and the American Academy of Pediatrics all oppose the rule. In Arizona, 440,000 people have already been dropped from food assistance under a similar paperwork regime.
