Medical professionals and patients gather for a rally outside of the US Capitol in Washington, D.C. on November 3, 2025, demanding an end to health care policies which they say are harming communities and threatening care access for low-income families, people with disabilities and the elderly.
Nebraska’s efforts to implement new, federally mandated work requirements for Medicaid underscore fears that millions of people will experience avoidable barriers to healthcare coverage.Federal authorities could have chosen to blunt the impact of the federal legislation’s Medicaid cuts. Instead, they added even more convoluted requirements that will deprive people of health care they are entitled to.Nebraska is the canary in the coal mine for issues that most states will face when they begin implementing these work requirements. As they do, they should make sure red tape doesn’t strip people of health care.
(Washington, DC) – Nebraska’s efforts to implement new, federally mandated work requirements for Medicaid underscore fears that millions of people will experience avoidable barriers to healthcare coverage, Human Rights Watch, Oxfam America, and Nebraska Appleseed said today.
On May 1, 2026, Nebraska became the first state to implement work requirements for Medicaid, the public health insurance program for people with low- or no-income, as part of public spending cuts mandated by the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which also extended and deepened tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit high-income households and corporations. These new rules will require most adults without dependents to document at least 80 hours per month of work, education, or other approved activities to maintain Medicaid coverage. States must implement the requirements by January 1, 2027, though they may do so sooner, as Nebraska has.
“Nebraska is the canary in the
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