Under the newly implemented 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act,' approximately 18.5 million Medicaid recipients across 42 states and D.C. must soon prove employment to maintain their healthcare. To qualify for a 'medically frail' exemption, individuals face stringent new state assessments rather than simple medical diagnoses. This policy mimics past state-level work requirements that ultimately stripped thousands of vulnerable people of coverage due to administrative burdens.
**THE DAILY INQUIRER**
*The Voice of the People—Always First with the Truth!*
**VOL. LXXXII... No. 184** | **CHICAGO, JULY 1, 1926** | **PRICE: TWO CENTS**
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### **THE GREAT HEALTH SQUEEZE!**
#### **“Squatter” in White House Puts the Screws to 18 Million on Medicaid Till!**
#### **Pencil-Pushers Demand: "Work or Starve" as New Work-Requirement Scheme Threatens the Sick and the Lame!**
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**BY MIKE ERVIN**
*Special Dispatch to The Inquirer*
**WASHINGTON, D.C.** — "Frail." That is the high-hat word the swells and the bureaucrats use to describe a fella like me who gets around on wheels.
Well, this scribe is here to tell you that’s a load of pure baloney! I ain't made of delicate glass, and I won't shatter into a million pieces if a stiff breeze blows my way. That just ain’t my style, pal.
But mark my words: there’s a grim day dawning, and folks across this great republic are going to be scrambling like alley cats to find any scrap of paper, any doctor’s note, to prove they are on their last legs. Why? Because Uncle Sam is putting the squeeze on, and if you can't prove you’re "frail," you’re getting booted off the federal health rolls!
#### **THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S COLD DECREE**
It all comes down to the big-wigs in Washington. On the third of June, the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services dropped a bombshell in the Federal Register. They spelled out the nasty details of the so-called "One Big Beautiful Bill Act"—a piece of paper signed into law last July by the current squatter occupying the Executive Mansion.
By the time we ring in the New Year, a staggering 18.5 million adults across forty-two states and the District of Columbia will have to face the music. If they want to keep their health coverage, they must prove they are clocking at least forty hours a month of honest sweat or community service. If they don't? It’s curtains for their healthcare!
Now, the brass hat politicians say there’s an out. If you’re "medically frail," you get a pass from this work grind. But don't pop the champagne just yet, brother.
The hawk-eyed scribes over at KFF Health News report that simply having a bum ticker or a bad leg won’t cut the mustard anymore. No, sir! The states are going to put you under the magnifying glass to judge the "severity" of your condition. It’s a rotten standard designed to make it as tough as possible for a poor soul to qualify.
It takes me back to my younger days during the draft, when some of the local boys wished they had a hitch in their git-along just to dodge the doughboy uniform. But dodging this new work-requirement racket is going to be tougher than dodging the draft board!
#### **THE ARKANSAS FLIM-FLAM OF ’18**
Let’s look at the record. This isn't the first time the high-and-mighty have tried to pull this fast one. During the squatter’s first term in office, the feds practically begged the states to put the screws to Medicaid enrollees.
The state of Arkansas was the first to try this shakedown in June of 2018. They decreed that every Joe and Jane aged thirty to forty-nine had to clock twenty hours a week of labor or community service, and report their hours to the state house every single month. Miss your reporting three times in a year? You’re out on your ear!
Even the disabled folks—supposedly exempt—had to file reports every two months just to prove they hadn't miraculously grown a new set of legs!
By December of 2018, the mailman had delivered bad news to nearly 17,000 adults in Arkansas, informing them they had been kicked off the rolls. The smart-money boys at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities did the math and found a real frame-up: more people lost their doctoring because of the confusing red tape than there were actual slackers!
#### **THE SQUATTER RETURNS**
The courts finally stepped in. In March of 2019, a federal judge blew the whistle on the whole racket, halting the scheme in both Arkansas and Kentucky. And when former President Joe Biden took the oath in 1921, his administration wasted no time throwing those cruel work rules into the ashcan.
But now, the squatter has snuck back into the White House, and his gang of schemers is back to finish the job. They want to tear down Medicaid once and for all. And this time, sister, even being "frail" might not save you from the boot!