A Medicaid Work Rule Is Leaving Homeless People Out in the Cold

New Medicaid work requirements are stripping coverage from people experiencing homelessness, a group that is technically eligible for exemptions but frequently cannot document them without a mailing address, a phone or a caseworker. Clinics report patients discovering their coverage lapsed only when they arrive for treatment. The pattern illustrates a recurring failure mode in work-rule design: the paperwork burden falls hardest on the people the exemptions were written to protect.