Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday said Democrats who attack Republicans for adding work requirements to Medicaid are demeaning the people who rely on the government health care program.
“It is a group of Democrats who, unfortunately, seem to think that poor people are stupid,” Bessent told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.
“I don’t think poor people are stupid. I think they have agency. And I think to have them register twice a year for these benefits, that is not a burden. But these people who want to infantilize the poor and those who need these Medicaid benefits are alarmist.”
President Donald Trump signed his sweeping domestic megabill, which included more than $1 trillion in health care cuts, into law Friday. Work requirements are a key component of the savings needed to extend trillions in tax cuts Trump pushed over the line during his first term in 2017. But Democrats and advocates worry the administrative toll could prove cumbersome both for low-income Americans looking to prove their eligibility and for the officials doing the verification.
Richard Besser, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, on Sunday pointed to Arkansas as an example. Thousands lost coverage when the state implemented a work requirement program, he told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.
“And it not only affects those individuals, which is bad enough, but rural hospitals across America depend on Medicaid dollars to stay in existence,” Besser said on “This Week.” “It’s predicted that there could be hundreds of rural hospitals that close. Those hospitals are also a driver for businesses. Businesses don’t want to move into a community without a hospital.”
Bessent told Bash the economy he and Trump are building will afford job-seekers with ample opportunity to exit the program by finding new work in the manufacturing sector.
“No, there are no change in benefits,” he said. “There’s a change in requirements to get the benefits. And what we are doing, we are bringing back manufacturing jobs. We are bringing back working-class jobs by securing the border. We have seen, already seen working class wages move up. So we are creating jobs. People can get off Medicaid and get a job that has good health care benefits.”