President Trump’s One, Big, Beautiful Bill is in the Senate, where Republicans have a more comfortable majority than the House and a more favorable re-election map waiting for them next year.
Unfortunately, the Senate debate has already been stymied, in part, by lies about Medicaid work requirements—especially the myth of Arkansas’s experience. It is time to dispel this myth before it casts the Big, Beautiful Bill in an ugly—and inaccurate—light.
The “Arkansas myth” floating around Capitol Hill is that the Natural State’s work requirements were unworkable and struck down by a court as “unconstitutional.”
This is false. The reality is that an activist D.C. judge—Judge James Boasberg—overruled the will of the people of Arkansas and halted the requirements using flimsy procedural reasons as the basis of his ruling—a ruling later vacated by the Supreme Court.
If the name Boasberg looks familiar, that is because this is the same activist judge who ordered the Trump administration to bring back deported Venezuelan gang members to the United States. President Trump called for his impeachment just months ago—yet some in Washington hold up Judge Boasberg’s 2019 ruling as gospel. Republicans should ignore this talking point as rotten fruit from an activist judge’s tree.
My home state’s Medicaid program suffered in profound ways after Judge Boasberg revoked our work requirement. Medicaid enrollment has exploded in Arkansas over the last two decades, with enrollment increasing by nearly 150 percent since 2000 and spending up fivefold. The percentage of enrollees who are children has shrunk, and now one-third of enrollees are able-bodied adults. And because not all providers accept Medicaid, able-bodied individuals are now jumping the line ahead of the traditional Medicaid populations who need care most—children, the elderly, and individuals with disabilities.
Compounding the activist judge’s ruling, the Arkansas Medicaid myth was further fueled by an inaccurate "study" that was based solely on telephone surveys with a massive margin of error. To make matters worse, the surveys were conducted before the work requirements were fully in place and even included people who were not subject to the work requirements. This so-called “study” became a messaging tool for the Democrats, not an accurate research paper.
In the debate around the Big, Beautiful Bill, some policymakers have fallen for a false, unsubstantiated claim that when Arkansas enacted work requirements, thousands of people lost Medicaid coverage without an increase in the number of people working. This is simply not true, and no senator or staffer should believe it.
To the contrary, the data doesn’t lie: Work requirements work, and Arkansas is proof.
Within two years of the work requirement taking effect, Medicaid enrollment of able-bodied, childless adults fell by nearly two-thirds, saving taxpayers $28 million. Those who left welfare after the state required part-time work for food stamps saw their incomes triple on average.
As we saw in the 1990s, work requirements are good for the country; they are good for the economy, and, most importantly, they are good for the able-bodied adults on welfare. Work requirements increase people’s incomes so that many will no longer need public assistance and will instead get good health care coverage from their employers. Work requirements can unleash the talents and the skills of people sitting on the sidelines, especially when more than seven million jobs are available right now. And most importantly, work requirements give people on Medicaid a greater sense of their own agency.
Yet today, most able-bodied people on Medicaid do not work. Their talents and skills are not being used to build a better future for themselves or serve their communities, and many have become trapped in a vicious cycle of dependency that hurts the taxpayer, hurts other Medicaid recipients, and above all, makes their lives worse. Work requirements are a highly effective way to break this vicious cycle and open doors of opportunity.
It’s lies like the “Arkansas myth” that can prevent real debate from occurring, and they can lead to major policy mistakes. As debate on the Big, Beautiful Bill begins in the Senate, there is no excuse for anyone to trot out the myths about Arkansas’s experience with work requirements. They worked here, and the data proves it.
Republican senators need to ask themselves whether they will support President Trump and make Medicaid work for those who need it, or let a baseless and vacated ruling by activist Judge Boasberg win the day.
Don’t believe the myths: Work requirements benefited Arkansas, and they can benefit every other state in the Union. The Senate should press forward and enact the kind of reforms that will strengthen Medicaid, strengthen our economy, and, above all, break the vicious cycle of dependency for millions of Americans.
Nick Stehle lives in Benton, Arkansas and works as the vice president of communications at the Foundation for Government Accountability.