The Only Way to Save Money on Medicaid Is to Let People Die

One of the trauma bays at South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore, New York, on August 7, 2024. Photo: John Paraskevas/Newsday RM via Getty Images

Michael Kinnucan is the Senior Health Policy Advisor at the Fiscal Policy Institute.

One of the major policy ideas animating the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) was the notion that the federal government was wasting money providing Medicaid to healthy adults. OBBBA addressed this supposed problem by instituting work requirements for non-disabled adult Medicaid enrollees – a red tape obstacle course that will cause an estimated 10-15 million people to lose federal Medicaid coverage.

This will occur even though the vast majority of those who will become uninsured already satisfy the new work requirements. Most adult non-disable