His research found that about 40% of the other roughly 96% of people on Medicaid in the state were working the required 80 hours a month under the state program. The rest either had medical conditions that prevented them from working or had other responsibilities, such as school or caring for family members.

Implementing work requirements also didn’t result in a higher employment rate — one of the arguments Arkansas officials used in favor of the new work rules.

“Most people, almost everybody, was already doing what [the state] wanted them to do,” he said. Very few were “the proverbial on the couch, video game story that we’re hearing from some of the supporters.”

Most commonly, Gibson said, people aren’t actually aware that they’ve lost coverage until they go see their doctors.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/georgia-arkansas-medicaid-work-rules-preview-s-coming-nationwide-rcna216235