{"id":158593,"date":"2025-02-28T17:48:53","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T22:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/?p=158593"},"modified":"2025-02-28T17:48:53","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T22:48:53","slug":"work-requirements-and-the-safety-net","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/?p=158593","title":{"rendered":"Work Requirements and the Safety Net"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally published at Pennsylvania Policy Center<\/a> on February 28, 2025.<\/em><\/p>\n

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February 28, 2025<\/p>\n

By Marc Stier<\/em><\/p>\n

All ten Pennsylvania Republicans in the House of Representatives voted for the budget resolution, which is designed to create deep cuts in Medicaid and SNAP to pay for the extension and expansion of the Trump tax credits of 2017, the vast majority of which will benefit the richest Americans and wealthy corporations<\/p>\n

And most people on Medicaid are on it for only a short period of time. People go on Medicaid when, usually due to bad economic times, they lose their job or health insurance and are typically on it for two or three years. And when the economy recovers, they get a new job or a better job with health insurance.<\/p>\n

While more than three million people are on Medicaid in Pennsylvania at any one time, experts estimate that about two-thirds of us will benefit from Medicaid at some point in our lives.<\/p>\n

As they have received substantial criticism from their constituents about cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, some Republican leaders have said that they will only eliminate waste in the program and institute work requirements to ensure that all Medicaid and SNAP recipients work.<\/p>\n

Work requirements, however, are just a backdoor way to block people from receiving Medicaid and SNAP. They make no sense as public policy.<\/p>\n

Here are the facts: 64% of the adults who receive Medicaid and SNAP do<\/em> work outside the home, and another 18% are taking care of dependent children or seniors or are going to school. Ten percent are ill or disabled, and 4% are retired. About 2% cannot find work.<\/p>\n

These are the people the safety net is designed to help. Some Medicaid recipients are workers who are not paid enough to afford health insurance. Others can\u2019t work temporarily because they are caring for others. And, of course, most of these people have children, whose well-being, now and in the future, is dependent on them receiving health care.<\/p>\n

So, there is no need for work requirements.<\/p>\n

Why, then, do Republicans favor them? Because they are a backdoor way to cut Medicaid.<\/p>\n

The recent experiences of three states that have instituted work requirements\u2014New Hampshire, Arkansas, and Georgia\u2014show us three things. First, 35%\u201340% of adults who are eligible for Medicaid and SNAP can’t secure or keep their benefits because of the red tape that work requirements create. Second, work requirements do not increase employment rates because people are already working. And third, work requirements don\u2019t even save much money.<\/p>\n

Taking care of people who need help is central to every part of our moral and intellectual tradition. There is a commandment in Exodus to take care of women and children. Pericles\u2019s “Funeral Oration” talks about how Athens makes the same commitment. And Jesus teaches us about our responsibility to take care of the \u201cleast among us.\u201d<\/p>\n

I recently re-read all those texts. And oddly enough, I can\u2019t find mention of \u201cwork requirements\u201d in any of them.<\/p>\n

Republicans, who always claim to be deeply religious, seem to have forgotten what their own religion teaches. Our friends and neighbors who need help deserve it.<\/p>\n

 <\/h1>\n

 <\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published at Pennsylvania Policy Center on February 28, 2025. February 28, 2025 By Marc Stier All ten Pennsylvania Republicans in the House of Representatives voted for the budget resolution, which is designed to create deep cuts in Medicaid and SNAP to pay for the extension and expansion of the Trump tax credits of 2017, the vast majority of which will benefit the richest Americans and wealthy corporations And most people on Medicaid are on it for only a short period of time. People go on Medicaid when, usually due to bad economic times, they lose their job or health insurance and are typically on it for two or three years. And when the economy recovers, they get a new job or a better job with health insurance. While more than three million people are on Medicaid in Pennsylvania at any one time, experts estimate that about two-thirds of us\u2026 Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1896,"featured_media":158592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[291],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-post"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p35YuU-FfX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/workrequirements1200x628.png?fit=1200%2C628&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1896"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=158593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/158592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=158593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=158593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=158593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}