Wisconsin health dept. introduces BadgerCare recipients to new federal work requirement

The state health department has launched a new webpage to explain the federal work requirement for some Medicaid recipients that will take effect in 2027.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services is still reviewing the federal rule, released on June 1, governing how states are to implement the work requirements, a spokesperson said. Medicaid is known as BadgerCare in Wisconsin.

On June 5, DHS posted a Federal Medicaid Work Requirement webpage with general information about the requirement, including when it takes effect, how participants in Medicaid might meet the requirement, and reasons people might be exempt from meeting it.

The DHS work requirement page also includes a screening tool that people can use to advise them whether they might have to meet the new requirement.

The screener is intended only as information, according to DHS. It is not an application form and the result it provides is not an official decision about coverage for the person completing the form.

A disclaimer on the first page of the screening form states, “No matter what the results of this tool say, you should still watch your mail for letters, read them, and follow all directions. If we ask you to send information or documents, it is important that you do so right away. If you don’t, you could lose your health care coverage.”

The tax and spending megabill HR 1, passed by congressional Republicans and signed on July 4, 2025, by President Donald Trump, added the work requirement for Medicaid participants who gained healthcare coverage through Medicaid expansion under the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

While Wisconsin did not adopt the full ACA expansion, the state added childless adults whose incomes are at or below the federal poverty guideline to its Medicaid program. About 190,000 childless adults in Wisconsin were covered by BadgerCare in April, according to DHS.

“If you could be affected by the federal work requirement, we’ll send you a letter in August or September to explain what you need to know and what will happen next,” the webpage states.

Under the federal requirement, childless adults ages 19 to 64 must report at least 80 hours of work or volunteer service in a month, or enrollment in education or a workplace training program, to qualify for Medicaid.

The requirement also provides for exemptions due to certain health conditions or other factors.

After the federal government issued its work requirement implementation rule June 1, advocates said it imposed stringent terms that will make it more difficult for people to remain covered by Medicaid, even if they fully qualify.

In an analysis published Tuesday at the Substack newsletter “Can We Still Govern?” Chloe East of the University of Colorado and Adrianna McIntyre of Harvard University wrote that research showed work requirements imposed in Arkansas in 2018 during the first Trump administration “had no positive effect on employment and made participants worse off.”

The paper was written in response to a new federal report from the Trump administration asserting that work requirements would “incentivize employment” and “reduce poverty.”

East and McIntyre wrote that the report’s assumptions were not supported by research literature on work requirements for Medicaid and federal nutrition aid programs (SNAP).

“One consistent finding across dozens of papers on work requirements is that they reduce program participation among vulnerable individuals and households,” East and McIntyre wrote.