States call out big businesses with employees on Medicaid
With the federal Medicaid work requirement looming in January, Democrats are considering state legislation to call out big companies that employ workers enrolled in the safety net health program.
July 14, 2026 / 5:00 AM EDT / KFF Health News
As the Trump administration's January deadline looms for states to enforce a new Medicaid work requirement , some state lawmakers are turning the tables by pushing to publicly name the largest companies that have employees enrolled in the government program covering low-income and disabled people.
California lawmakers seek to revive an expired law that would require the state to identify companies that employ 100 or more people and have employees enrolled in Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program. Nevada has had a similar law in place since 2017, though a proposal for one in Oregon stalled when its legislative session ended in March.
The California bill author, Democratic state Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas, said she is deeply troubled by what is going to happen when work requirements kick in. According to the state, nearly 5 million out of more than 14 million residents on Medi-Cal will be subject to the requirement.
"We think this is a bill that's about fairness," Smallwood-Cuevas said. "It's a basic principle that taxpayers deserve transparency about which large employers are shifting their healthcare costs onto the public."
Large employers that regularly top Nevada's list, such as Walmart and Amazon, have said that the state included part-time and seasonal workers in their counts and that their full-time hourly employees make too much to qualify for Medicaid.