Medicaid recipients could replace migrant farm workers

FACE OUR FEARS: Until we decide that everyone deserves healthcare, we will continue to exploit those who need it the most.

In news that made my blood boil, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins recently suggested that non-disabled adults receiving Medicaid could replace migrant farm workers deported under current immigration policies that are sowing fear throughout communities all over this nation.

“There’s been a lot of noise in the last few days and a lot of questions about where the president stands and his vision for farm labor,” Rollins said during a news conference with Republican governors. “Ultimately, the answer on this is automation, also some reform within the current governing structure, and then also, when you think about there are 34 million able-bodied adults in our Medicaid program, there are plenty of workers in America.” (The Hill)

She was referencing the approximately 34 million non-disabled adults on Medicaid who would face stricter work requirements under recent legislation rolled into Trump’s big, ugly budget bill which he (ironically) signed on July 4.

Rollins also stated that there would be "no amnesty" for immigrant farmworkers and that deportations would continue strategically. Come again? How can you be “strategic” about deportations when people who are here legally are being kidnapped from their communities or when you realize that no amount of mental gymnastics will replace the workers you have deported and detained?

How delusional do you have to be to think that Medicaid recipients will be up at 4 AM to pick strawberries or milk cows? It is absolutely mind-boggling when you look at the pesky facts that this regime loves to overlook, twist or ignore all together.

Let’s break down some numbers:

Over 64% of working age Medicaid recipients ARE ALREADY working. Their low wages make them eligible for Medicaid because they cannot afford health insurance — even through the Affordable Care marketplace which the Republicans in Congress keep trying to tear down.

More from The Hill on this:

Trump’s agenda-setting tax and spending bill creates the first federally mandated work requirements for Medicaid recipients. The health care safety net program typically provides coverage for pregnant women, mothers, young children and the disabled, but the federal Affordable Care Act under former President Obama allowed states to expand coverage to more of the working poor.

In the 40 states that have expanded coverage (plus Washington, D.C.), people making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level — about $20,700 for a single person or $43,000 for a family of four — are Medicaid eligible.

The new work requirements are set to take effect in states by the end of 2026.

We haven’t raised the national minimum wage from $7.25 in over 15 years. While some states (not Pennsylvania where I live) have raised their wages from $12-15/hour, we must acknowledge that you can’t have both low-wage workers AND expect them to pay for their healthcare WHILE ALSO continuing to make housing and food unaffordable.

Oh, and by the way, the food prices will continue to climb not just because of Trump’s idiotic and uneven tariff policies, but because we are deporting migrant farm workers.

It’s a feedback loop from hell.

So who primarily receives Medicaid? Well, in 2023, children made up 48% of Medicaid/CHIP enrollees, while adults made up 52%, according to the KFF.

Medicaid is a major source of health coverage for people with disabilities. More than 1 in 3 people with disabilities (15 million) utilize Medicaid (35%)

Is Rollins suggesting that people who already WORK, people who are disabled and children (infants included!) are supposed to be picking fruits and vegetables in fields? Should the elderly get in on this because 10% of Medicaid recipients are ages 65 and older. Why? It supplements Medicare coverage that continues to be cut and privatized.

What kind of dystopian hellscape do these people want us trying to survive under?

REALITY CHECK: Our elected officials get wonderful healthcare that we — the taxpayers — pay for.

MAKE IT MAKE SENSE. I guess healthcare for thee but not for us.

Our collective memory is short. It wasn’t so long ago that Luigi Mangione was accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City on December 4, 2024. He was arrested five days later in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

The people rallied behind him in a way that crossed ideological lines and political parties. The cry for universal healthcare has only continued to grow — but this tone-deaf and violent regime is instead expanding its reach to exploit workers, prey on the vulnerable and divide people with their racist and xenophobic rhetoric.

I remember when one of my friends was diagnosed with cancer in her late 20s a few years ago. She had also lost her job weeks before her diagnosis. Medicaid literally saved her life. She is a “non-disabled” person. So under this new potential program, would she have been expected to be up at the crack of dawn to pick radishes on her way to chemo treatments? How about when she needs to be in bed rest following reconstructive surgery? What would she be expected to do to “earn her keep?”

We pay tax dollars for exactly these kinds of situations so that someone has the chance to heal and recover. We will all need healthcare at some point in our lives — that is inevitable. We all must pay into systems where we can access these services whenever we need them if we want to have a functioning society.

We cannot continue to run this country like a faux Fortune 500 company. People are not here to simply work until exhaustion and then die so that a few fat cats can continue to live off of our labor and laugh at us while they count their piles of money.

We must demand from our elected officials that they stand up for the people, fight for universal healthcare and hold our representatives accountable. What Rollins and others are really suggesting is a return to feudalism.

We know where that leads. It was called the Dark Ages for a reason.

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Until next time, take care of yourselves and each other.

In solidarity,
Natalie