Republicans want to add work requirements to Medicaid. Even some recipients with jobs are concerned

Without Medicaid, Joanna Parker would have a much tougher time holding down a job.

Without Medicaid, Joanna Parker would have a much tougher time holding down a job. The Garner, North Carolina, resident works for a local home goods store up to 20 hours a week, typically. But she also suffers from degenerative disc disease in her spine and relies on Medicaid to cover her doctor’s visits, physical therapy and medication that helps her manage the pain so she can get out of bed in the morning. “If I lose my insurance, I lose my ability to work,” said Parker, 40, who was uninsured for about a decade until North Carolina expanded Medicaid to low-income adults in December 2023. That’s why Parker is so worried about the sweeping Republican tax and spending cuts package that the Senate narrowly approved on Tuesday. The bill, which passed the House by a slim margin in May, would impose the first-ever work requirement on Medicaid enrollees like her. Lawmakers hope to send the legislation, which aims to fulfill President Donald Trump’s agenda, to his desk before July 4th. Though she’s employed, Parker fears she could be stripped of her health insurance if she’s not able to work enough hours every month or gets tripped up in reporting her time on the job to the state – should the work mandate become law. She is now facing the potential need for a biopsy so she’s even more worried that she could be left without insurance. “I feel it will be so easy to lose your coverage if you do the reporting the wrong way and you can’t fix it,” said Parker, who has applied for full-time jobs over the past 18 months but said she hasn’t received responses.