WASHINGTON — Non-disabled Americans on Medicaid spend most of their waking hours either playing video games or watching TV, according to a new study touted by congressional Republicans who want to reform the 60-year-old federal benefit.
The American Enterprise Institute found in a survey put out last week that Medicaid recipients ages 19-64 who are capable of working and don’t have kids spend an average of 4.2 hours per day — or 126 hours every 30 days — just vegging out.
That’s a little more than 1.5 times the 80 hours per month that those Americans will be asked to work, do community service or attend school starting in 2027 to keep getting their benefits, according to a provision in the “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act that House Republicans passed last month.
Non-disabled beneficiaries also dedicate an average of four hours per day to doing housework and running errands — but just 28 minutes to caring for other people and 22 minutes to looking for a job.
Notably, the study shared by House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office Tuesday also points out, those who work at least four hours every day while receiving Medicaid benefits spend another 2.7 hours watching TV and playing video games.
“You don’t want able-bodied workers on a program that is intended, for example, for single mothers with two small children who’s just trying to make it,” Johnson (R-La.) told CNN’s Katilin Collins in a February interview.
“That’s who Medicaid is for — not for 29-year-old males sitting on their couches playing video games. We’re gonna find those guys and we’re gonna send ’em back to work.”
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the Medicaid work requirements and other health care tweaks could save the federal government up to $723 billion over the next 10 years.
Congressional Democrats have in turn attacked the GOP by pointing to CBO projections that the bill will kick up to 7.6 million people off of Medicaid.
The changes were some of the last made to the House Republican bill before it narrowly passed along party lines last month.
Already some GOP senators have said the issue of Medicaid changes are a redline before the reconciliation bill heads to the floor for a vote.
“Just had a great talk with President Trump about the Big, Beautiful Bill. He said again, NO MEDICAID BENEFIT CUTS,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) posted on X Monday.
Others like Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) have called out instances of “fraud” in the benefits program — including by illegal immigrants.
“[W]e are strengthening and reforming Medicaid,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) on Fox Radio’s “The Brian Kilmeade Show” Tuesday.
“You’ve got pregnant moms and disabled and elderly and people who depend upon Medicaid. But you’ve got a lot of people benefitting from Medicaid today — able-bodied adults; you’ve got a lot of illegals who are on Medicaid, have been added to the rolls by states around the country,” Thune added.
Trump’s White House in a press release Tuesday touted the “big beautiful bill” for protecting “Medicaid for Americans who truly need it.
“This bill eliminates waste, fraud, and abuse by ending benefits for at least 1.4 million illegal immigrants who are gaming the system,” it proclaimed.
Kevin Corinth, a senior fellow at AEI, used questions from the American Time Use Survey along with the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement to come up with the study’s estimates.
The survey comprised a pooled sample for the years 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023, with 2020 left out due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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