(The Center Square) – While welcoming Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., state Republicans celebrated changes made to federal programs, including new work requirements.
The updates, they say, will help social safety nets catch those who are most vulnerable, while reducing spending on those who might otherwise be able to fend for themselves.
“We recently endured a budget battle that none of us want to go through again, and a lot of it had to do with how much we spend,” said Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill, R-Jacobus. “Our Human Services budget continues to grow at an alarming rate, faster than any other state agency, including education, and we are all up here to say that we must take care of the citizens who are the neediest and most vulnerable, and we need to let Pennsylvanians know that these programs exist to be a hand up and not a handout.”
Phillips-Hill commended Kennedy’s leadership supporting new work requirements for Medicaid and SNAP. They demand that recipients work, volunteer, or participate in work programs or education for a total of at least 80 hours per month, or about 20 hours per week.
“In Pennsylvania, because these individuals are now getting jobs we are seeing for the first time a decline in the number of enrollees in these programs, including an 8% decline over the last two months,” said Phillips-Hill. “These would-be enrollees are now seeking employment opportunities, jobs, a job that gives an individual purpose.”
It is unclear whether the drop-off in enrollees is the result of finding gainful employment. A 2023 study from the Congressional Budget Office examining work requirements for Medicaid found that the changes “would lead to lower federal costs, an increase in the number of uninsured people, no change in employment or hours worked by Medicaid recipients, and a rise in state costs.”
For Medicaid, the new requirements will go into effect Jan. 1, 2027.
For SNAP, the new requirements phased into effect in September and November. They increased the age of those who need to report to 64. They reduced the age of qualifying dependents to 14. Additionally, the new federal legislation ended SNAP provisions for veterans, unhoused people and current or former foster children aged 18 to 24.
Advocates say that many people who fail to meet the new requirements are overloaded with unpaid work, like caregiving for family members including young children, those with disabilities, and older adults. Others, they say, meet the requirements but will likely slip through the cracks meeting reporting demands.
“There’s a real risk that these stricter administrative requirements will cause people to lose access to their benefits, not because they’re not eligible for those benefits,” said Arkoosh, stressing the point. “That doesn’t mean that they’re not eligible but because they have to navigate a whole bunch of new red tape.”
That red tape, Arkoosh said, comes with an administrative burden to her department and to the state of Pennsylvania, charged with administering the federal program.
To that end, legislators highlighted efforts to reduce fraud related to health and human services, including identifying medical providers who provide puberty blockers to minors who receive Medicaid.
