Childless Adults Will Bear the Brunt of Republican Cuts to the Safety … – The New Republic

The conception of able-bodied may also not be entirely accurate; for example, health issues that make it difficult to find or maintain employment, such as the lingering effects of so-called long Covid, may be difficult to diagnose. Plata-Nino also contended that it could be difficult for low-income Americans to find transportation to jobs, particularly in rural areas.

Thompson, who represents a very rural Pennsylvania district, maintained that transportation would not be a problem. I would argue that of the less than two million people were talking about that are able-bodied, theyre going to have some form of transportation thats available to them, Thompson said. Somebody can always come up with a scenario of What if. Quite frankly, thats why we give exemptions to the states, and the states can use those exemptions.

Republicans have also pressed for work requirements to be added to Medicaid, but evidence demonstrates that conditioning the program on work has detrimental effects for its participants. In 2018, the Trump administration began approving state work requirements for Medicaid in several states, although many of these policies were blocked in the courts. Arkansas implemented a work requirement program for 10 months, between June 2018 and March 2019. By the time a federal judge halted the program, 18,000 adults had lost their Medicaid coverage. Moreover, a Harvard study found that 50 percent of adults who lost their coverage reported serious problems in paying off their debt, 56 percent delayed care due to cost, and 64 percent delayed taking medications because of cost.

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Childless Adults Will Bear the Brunt of Republican Cuts to the Safety ... - The New Republic