Reporting suggests that Republicans are exploring significant cuts to Medicaid, largely by making eligibility requirements more strict and capping funding. Based on past GOP efforts, advocates and reporters expect work requirements — which would leave many unemployed Americans without health insurance — to play a significant role in the plans. A 2023 Congressional Budget Office analysis estimated that adding work requirements alone could strip hundreds of thousands of Americans of their health insurance and affect several million more.

During Trump's first term, Arkansas implemented the strictest work requirements in the country. A recent PubMed Central study of the outcomes in Arkansas said the added requirements “led to coverage losses associated with significant negative impacts on medical debt and affordability of care, without improving employment.” It added:

We find no evidence that the policy succeeded in its stated goals of promoting work and instead find substantial evidence of harm to health care coverage and access. Our results should provide a strong note of caution for federal and state policymakers considering work requirement policies in the future.

Congressional Republicans have also hinted at returning to their 2017 proposal of enacting block grants, which cap federal funding to state-level Medicaid programs. As an article from Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) explained at the time, “The potential impact [of enacting block grants] is significant. More than 10 million who got insurance through Obamacare are on Medicaid and could be affected.”

A more recent analysis from KFF explained that if Republicans went ahead with cuts to Medicaid by decreasing the federal matching rate for people covered under the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion, the “health coverage implications would likely be significant.” It explained:

This financing change would shift a substantial amount of Medicaid spending from the federal government to states. States would then need to decide whether to use states funds to make up for the lost federal funding or cut coverage. Given the challenges states would face replacing substantial lost federal funds, the health coverage implications would likely be significant and could reverse gains in financial security, access to care, and health outcomes. A large body of prior research shows that Medicaid expansion has helped to reduce the uninsured and improve access, affordability, and financial security among the low-income population. More recent research shows improvements in health outcomes and continues to show positive effects for providers (particularly rural hospitals) and for sexual and reproductive health.

From November 14, 2024, when The Associated Press reported that Republicans won control of the House of Representatives, spurring additional reporting regarding the GOP's plans to limit Medicaid access, through December 9, 2024, Fox News mentioned the GOP's plans only 3 times, for a total of less than 1 minute. The network failed to air a single full segment dedicated to the plan, while 2 of the 3 mentions came from Democratic guests on the network.

CNN aired only 1 segment about the GOP's plans and an additional 10 mentions, bringing the network's total coverage to just over 6 minutes.

Meanwhile, MSNBC gave the plans the most coverage, airing at least 9 segments, along with several mentions, bringing the network total to just over 33 minutes. Of any show on any network, MSNBC's All In with Chris Hayes provided the most coverage of the plans, discussing them for at least 7 minutes.

Trump and congressional Republicans pursued similar efforts during Trump’s first term, including allowing states to implement work requirements and roll back Medicaid expansions. Given the huge public support for Medicaid, news networks should devote more coverage to these potentially devastating cuts.

Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original programming on CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC for any of the terms “Trump,” “president,” “Oz,” “Kennedy,” “Republican,” “GOP,” “House of Representatives,” “the House,” or “Congress” within close proximity to the term “Medicaid” from November 14, 2024, when The Associated Press reported that Republicans won control on the House of Representatives, spurring additional reporting regarding the GOP's plans to limit Medicaid access, through December 9, 2024.

We timed segments, which we defined as instances when reports about likely GOP efforts to limit Medicaid access by cutting the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion spending or adding work requirements for some enrollees were the stated topic of discussion or when we found significant discussion of GOP efforts to limit Medicaid access. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multitopic segment discussed the reports with one another.

We also timed mentions, which we defined as instances when a speaker in a segment on another topic mentioned GOP efforts to limit Medicaid access without another speaker engaging with the comment, and teasers, which we defined as instances when the anchor or host promoted a segment about GOP efforts to limit Medicaid access scheduled to air later in the broadcast.

We rounded all times to the nearest minute.