Health Care, Culture & the Family, Good Government

Work requirements could help 125,000 Oklahomans move from welfare to work

October 21, 2025

Ray Carter

Work requirements recently approved by Congress could benefit more than 125,000 Oklahomans who will now be incentivized to obtain employment that moves them off government welfare programs, according to data presented to state lawmakers.

When Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” in July, work requirements for able-bodied individuals on Medicaid were among the changes enacted.

Under the federal law, able-bodied adults who have no children and are between the ages of 19 and 64 are required to complete at least 80 hours per month of work, volunteering, education, or job training to maintain Medicaid eligibility.

At a legislative study conducted by members of the Oklahoma House Appropriations and Budget Health Subcommittee this month, officials with the Oklahoma Health Care Authority reported that roughly 126,000 Oklahomans on Medicaid will be required to comply with the work requirements.

The work requirement is expected to significantly benefit those individuals in the long run by shifting them into meaningful work and providing them with the ability to be self-sufficient.

A Sept. 3 report from the Foundation for Government Accountability noted, “Without work requirements, most able-bodied adults on Medicaid do not work at all. When subject to work requirements, individuals return to work and see their incomes rise. In Arkansas, for example, work requirements boosted employment. People left Medicaid because their incomes increased such that they no longer qualified for Medicaid. When subject to work requirements, the uninsured rate in Arkansas declined. Moving able-bodied adults from welfare to work will help reduce hospitals’ financial struggles.”

In contrast, allowing able-bodied adults to remain on Medicaid without any work requirement could have significant negative impacts on those individuals’ well-being.

In a March column, Robert L. Leahy, director of The American Institute for Cognitive Therapy NYC, noted, “For many, unemployment is one of the most stressful times in one’s life. It raises their risk of mortality by 63%. There are significant increases in suicide, injuries, and accidents, and higher mortality rates among the less educated in this group.”

As individuals access work, more will receive private health insurance coverage either through their employer or by purchasing individual policies with the income reaped from gainful employment. That alone is expected to improve the lives of those subject to work requirements. Researchers have long found that Medicaid patients have worse health outcomes than those with private insurance because the government program provides less access to health care than private insurance does. Medicaid’s low provider rates cause providers to limit the number of Medicaid patients they treat.

During the recent legislative study, state Rep. Mark Tedford, R-Tulsa, noted that work requirements will also indirectly benefit Oklahoma hospitals’ financial stability. Because private insurance pays health-care providers more than Medicaid, a reduction in the share of Medicaid patients and an increase in privately insured patients will improve hospitals’ financial stability.

“It seems to me that, as we go into the future, that providers would do increasingly better if we have a higher percentage of our state population in the private market rather than Medicaid,” Tedford said.