New campaign aims to help millions at risk of losing Medicaid coverage under work requirements
Mechanicsville, VIRGINIA — In 100 days, on Jan.1, new federal work and reporting requirements kick in for Medicaid recipients, leaving roughly 10 million Americans at risk of losing healthcare coverage, as states scramble to prepare for the most substantial change to the program in decades.A new, $2 million campaign called “Keep Your Care,” an independent nonprofit, launched on Wednesday.
Shared exclusively with NBC News, it aims to educate states and Medicaid recipients ahead of the massive change.For Melanie and Greg Stephens, who live in a small town outside of Richmond, Virginia, the resources can’t come soon enough.On Aug.
31, the family received a letter in the mail informing them of the new guidelines.“When I received the letter about all the changes coming up, I had a panic attack because I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, what does this mean?’” Melanie Stephens said.As full-time caregivers for their disabled daughter, Rachel, they are exempt from the 80-hours-per-month work or community service requirement that will affect most eligible adults in the new year.But they will still need to prove they are exempt every six months.“Our concern is not so much on our part because we are thorough,” Greg Stephens said.
“Once it leaves us and goes to a Medicaid worker to process, that’s where we are concerned they’re going to miss a deadline or fall through the cracks, and we have no control over that.”The work requirements, supported by Republicans to address wasteful spending, were passed as part of the “big, beautiful bill” signed into law by President Donald Trump last year.But they could leave eligible recipients without coverage because of the administrative hoops they will now have to jump through, health care advocates argue.
Virginia Health Secretary Marvin Figueroa, in an interview with NBC News, described it as “fighting government for something that you’re entitled to.”“I go back to just look at the debate that allowed thi...