Jake Berry: New Medicaid work rules will bury Granite Staters in paperwork

A year ago this month, the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) was signed into law, and New Hampshire has been bracing for the consequences ever since.

For those of us working at the intersection of health care access and public policy, the past year has felt like watching a runaway freight train gather speed, and now it’s about to come off the tracks. The federal law, also known as H.R. 1, set in motion nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts over the next decade, including more than $1 billion here in New Hampshire. It tightens eligibility rules for Medicaid recipients and forces recipients to refile with Medicaid every six months, increasing the likelihood of lost coverage. And now that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released more details of the new work requirements facing individuals enrolled in the Granite Advantage Health Care Program, our state’s Medicaid expansion program, the full weight of what’s coming is becoming harder to ignore.