(The Center Square) – Taxpayers spent $56 billion on Medicaid last year for able-bodied adults abusing the program, according to a new report released by the White House Tuesday.
The report claims that 44% of able-bodied Medicaid recipients without children worked less than 20 hours a week in 2024, using 11% of the government’s annual Medicaid funds.
The White House stressed the need for more stringent work requirements for adults on Medicaid, citing studies that link unemployment to drug abuse, poor mental health and suicide.
“We find substantial evidence that work is beneficial and unemployment is harmful for individuals across a range of domains,” the report says. “The mechanisms include not only the value of earned income and employee benefits but also the social interaction, structure, and sense of purpose that come from working.”
Underscoring this argument, the report notes that there were 6.5 million able-bodied, childless Medicaid recipients of working age who reported making no income in 2024.
Medicaid work requirements have been a disputed issue in Congress this year as Republicans seek to make President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” law. Republicans are looking to cut fraud and abuse from the Medicaid program to find money for Trump’s sweeping domestic policy agenda, citing the upswing in fraud within the program in recent years.
The Republican’s funding package currently sits in the U.S. Senate, where leadership is ironing out details for their version of the legislation. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, released his portion of the bill Monday. His committee has jurisdiction over Medicaid.
The Finance Committee’s text goes farther than the House of Representatives in its work requirements for Medicaid recipients. While the House’s version excuses parents with dependent children of any age from logging work hours, Crapo amended this provision to only exempt parents with dependent children under the age of 15.
The White House’s report specifically flags California and New York as the highest spenders of federal Medicaid funds, using one-third of the program’s total funding in 2024. The report suggests these two states cost federal taxpayers $13.5 billion and $6.4 billion in 2024, respectively.
Representatives from districts in New York and California have opposed the Republican budget package, citing issues with caps to the state and local tax deduction (SALT). Reps. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., Nick Lalota, R-N.Y, Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., and Young Kim, R-Calif., previously stated that they will band together to sink the legislation in the House if the Senate amends the SALT provision in any way.
With razor-thin Republican majorities in both chambers, the White House previously got involved in lobbying efforts to pass the legislation through several key votes over the past few months.
However, Trump has been relatively quiet as the Senate internally works out details of the bill. The president has been occupied by worsening tensions in the Middle East, even leading him to abruptly cut short his trip to the G7 summit in Alberta, Canada this week.
• Caroline Boda is an intern reporter and member of the 2025 Searle Freedom Trust and Young America’s Foundation National Journalism Center Apprentice and Internship initiative.
