On Tuesday, The Federalist posted an article about the work requirements added to Medicaid in the One Big Beautiful Bill.

The article reports:

President Ronald Reagan famously embraced the Russian proverb “Trust, but verify” during negotiations with the Soviet Union over nuclear arms reductions. Reagan understood that when there are incentives to cheat, verification is essential.

That same principle applies to government welfare programs, including the forthcoming Medicaid work requirements. In the Working Families Tax Cut Act — also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill — Congress required able-bodied, working-age adults to work, volunteer, or participate in job training to receive Medicaid unless they qualify for an exemption. More than 80 percent of Americans support such requirements.

…Unfortunately, some states are gearing up to permit applicants (or intermediaries enrolling them on their behalf) to self-attest to meeting the requirements or qualifying for an exemption. These states would permit applicants to simply check a box without verification.

Failing to verify applicant information has led to widespread improper enrollment and fraud in other programs. The massive improper enrollment in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) proves that when the government weakens verification standards, including through self-attestation, improper enrollment rises dramatically.

The article concludes:

This year, the Trump administration has rightly targeted fraud and reversed Biden policies that enabled improper ACA enrollment to skyrocket. Allowing self-attestation in Medicaid would return us to the Biden administration’s policy failures. The American people overwhelmingly support commonsense work requirements for able-bodied adults receiving welfare benefits, not policies that can be so easily gamed. When spending other people’s money on other people, verification — not blind trust — is the prudent policy.

It does no good to pass a law with a work requirement if you don’t enforce the work requirement. Not verifying the work requirement will simply open the door for more of the massive fraud that has been uncovered by Vice-President J.D. Vance’s anti-fraud task force.