MAKING CHOICES: Speaker Mike Johnson defends Medicaid requirements in GOP bill amid concerns

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From NBC News: Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Sunday defended cuts to Medicaid in the budget bill House Republicans passed last month, saying that “4.8 million people will not lose their Medicaid unless they choose to do so.”

Johnson told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that the bill imposes “commonsense” work requirements for some Medicaid recipients and added that he’s “not buying” the argument that the work requirements, which would require able-bodied Medicaid recipients to work, participate in job training programs or volunteer for 80 hours a month, are too “cumbersome.”

The bill also adds new rules and paperwork requirements for those Medicaid recipients and increases eligibility checks and address verifications.


Johnson said the work requirements “should have been put in a long time ago.”

“You’re telling me that you’re going to require the able-bodied, these young men, for example, OK, to only work or volunteer in their community for 20 hours a week. And that’s too cumbersome for them?” Johnson said “I’m not buying it. The American people are not buying it.”

“The people who are complaining that these people are going to lose their coverage because they can’t fulfill the paperwork, this is minor enforcement of this policy, and it follows common sense,” Johnson added.

READ MORE AT NBCNews.com.


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