Right-wing media solidify around “able-bodied” myth as Senate GOP weighs Medicaid cuts

As Republicans in Congress negotiate a budget expected to deliver massive tax cuts to the wealthy while decimating the social safety net, right-wing media figures are perpetuating the myth that large numbers of Medicaid recipients are able-bodied people who refuse to work and therefore should be removed from the program.

The messaging from conservative pundits echoes rhetoric from the Trump administration, which denies that its proposals will kick millions of people off of Medicaid. Instead, the White House is arguing that those who will lose Medicaid coverage “didn’t deserve it in the first place,” according to Politico, which further reports that the administration’s goal is to win passage for the bill “by redefining what qualifies as a cut.”

House Republicans passed their version of the bill on May 22. It has now been taken up by the Senate.

Congressional Republicans push bill to slash Medicaid and deliver windfall to the rich
On May 22, The New York Times reported that the “work requirement in the bill that just passed the House represents the strictest version Republicans in Congress have ever put forward.” The bill “would require childless adults without disabilities who want Medicaid coverage to prove that they had worked, volunteered or attended school for 80 hours in the month before enrollment.” Medicaid enrollees who failed to meet the requirement would also be barred from buying insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges. [The New York Times, 5/22/25]

The Congressional Budget Office, which offers nonpartisan analysis of federal spending, determined that an earlier version of the bill would cause at least 7.6 million people to become uninsured, with 10.3 million fewer Medicaid enrollees. According to an analysis from liberal think tank the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, when other aspects of the House bill’s changes are included — such as cuts to subsidies for people on ACA plans — “roughly 15 million low- and moderate-income people would lose health coverage and become uninsured under the House Republicans’ sweeping and draconian health care agenda.” [Politico, 5/13/25; Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 5/29/25]

Research from KFF, formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation, determined that 92% of Medicaid enrollees are either working full- or part-time, or could qualify for a work requirement exemption — such as being enrolled in school, having a disability, or performing caretaking duties. A separate study from the University of Massachusetts Boston found that of able-bodied people who would not qualify for an exemption, 79% are women who likely live in rural areas, are taking care of elderly parents or adult children, and have recently left the workforce. [KFF, 5/20/25; University of Massachusetts Boston, 5/2025]

CNBC reported that the Medicaid-slashing bill will deliver its biggest financial windfalls to “to the wealthiest Americans, courtesy of tax-cutting measures such as those for business owners, investors and homeowners in high-tax areas.” Further analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that “the top 1 percent of people would receive tax cuts three times the size of those for people with incomes in the bottom 60 percent, measured as a share of after-tax income.” [CNBC, 5/23/25; Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 5/22/25]
Right-wing media figures push myth that Medicaid is overwhelmed by able-bodied people who refuse to work
On Newsmax, former Trump campaign press secretary Hogan Gidley said the bill “strengthens Medicaid by making sure 1.4 illegal aliens aren't on the program stealing from American citizens. It makes sure that able-bodied Americans, those who can work but refuse to work — also cheating from the system — are no longer covered under this.” [Newsmax, Wake Up America, 6/3/25]

Fox News host Laura Ingraham lamented the rise of “stay-at-home sons,” and her guest, Fox contributor Tomi Lahren, suggested that they “may be deadbeat folks on Medicaid.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 5/29/25]

Fox News contributor James Freeman criticized the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion for opening up the program to “able-bodied, working age people.” The ACA’s expansion has allowed more than 20 million people across 40 states and the District of Columbia to access the health care program. Freeman urged Republican senators to go after the Medicaid expansion, saying, “I think they need to be bolder in the Senate.” He continued: “For example, one big change that Barack Obama made was extending Medicaid, which used to be for disabled people and poor children, to able-bodied working age people. That needs to be rolled back.” He praised the House bill for including work requirements, but argued the entire expansion should be “rescinded, if they want to change the trajectory of federal spending.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 5/29/25; KFF, “State Health Facts,” accessed 6/2/25; KFF, “Status of State Medicaid Expansion Decisions,” 5/9/25]

Fox News host Greg Gutfeld: “In terms of cutting Medicaid, let’s be honest about the Medicaid cuts — this is about able-bodied young men and illegal immigrants.” [Fox News, The Five, 5/28/25]

The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro: “Of course, if you are able-bodied and just poor, you should have to work in order to receive Medicaid.” He added that “80 hours a month, again, that’s 20 hours a week, that’s four hours a workday — my kids are in school for like twice that length of time.” Shapiro previously argued that for able-bodied people who aren’t working, it’s “not because of lack of job opportunity,” and told Medicaid recipients to “get off your butt and work.” Despite Shapiro’s blithe dismissals, when Arkansas implemented its work requirements, roughly 1 in 4 Medicaid recipients statewide lost their coverage even though 95% of the targeted population met the requirements or qualified for an exemption. [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 5/22/25, 5/15/25; KFF, “5 Key Facts About Work Requirements,” 2/18/25; New England Journal of Medicine, 6/19/19]

On the morning the House bill passed, Fox national correspondent Aishah Hasnie said that some Republicans were “worried there were going to be massive cuts,” but that “really, Republicans wanted to go after illegal immigrants that were using Medicaid and able-bodied men that were on Medicaid.” She added: “They wanted to add work requirements, and those work requirements now will start in 2026. It’s a huge win for fiscal conservatives.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 5/22/29]

Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum claimed that “Medicaid was designed for low-income families with children, pregnant women, the elderly, people with disabilities, and people in need of long-term care. It was not designed for able-bodied people who can work and aren't working.” She added that the government should make sure only “people who deserve these benefits can get them.” [Fox News, The Story With Martha MacCallum, 5/20/25]

Fox News host Jesse Watters said, “If you're a young, able-bodied, healthy American man — 26 years old, you don't even want to go to work — you can get on Medicaid.” He added: “You can live at your parents’ house, play softball on the weekend, sell ecstasy on the side, not even look for a job — and you can get free health care. That’s what they’re doing. They’re just closing that lazy loophole.” [Fox News, The Five, 5/19/25]

Fox News host Charlie Hurt falsely argued that work requirements would strengthen Medicaid. “A major Democrat attack on the bill is they claim it cuts Medicaid,” Hurt said on May 19. “What it actually does is it saves Medicaid by not paying, first of all, people who are ineligible for it, but also because it doesn’t — it puts in work requirements for, you know, 30-year-old, able-bodied males without dependents, and it says, you know, if you are going to get welfare from the government, you're going to need to work, and that seems like a really low standard to a regular person.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 5/19/25]

Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon has simultaneously attempted to portray himself as a defender of Medicaid — by acknowledging that many of President Donald Trump’s voters use the program — while also arguing for harsh work requirements. “We don't have great jobs, and that’s why a lot of MAGA is on Medicaid,” Bannon said. He added: “An able-bodied seaman ought to be putting in, I don’t know, 40-60 hours? If it’s a month they ought to just rack it up.” (Bannon is a former Navy officer and frequently speaks in military slang.) “If you’re able-bodied, you’ve got to show that you’ve got work requirements, minimum,” he concluded. [Real America’s Voice, War Room, 5/13/25; Media Matters, 3/4/25]