Photograph Source: Yomosa – CC BY-SA 4.0

Congressional Republicans are moving quickly to enact Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill” that would cut spending on the social safety net and increase the military budget while delivering tax cuts that would overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy.

Some of the most important cuts will come from Medicaid – which provides health care coverage to X million Americans. The centerpiece of the Republican plan is to institute work requirements – a move that party leaders defend as a way to ensure that “able-bodied working-age adults” are out working and not obtaining health coverage that is intended for “the truly needy.”

These arguments rely on some key misconceptions about Medicaid recipients.

Most Working-Age People on Medicaid Already Work

The Republican plan relies on this notion that there are many people on Medicaid........

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