Nebraska rushed Medicaid work rules. Then a cancer patient was told he’d lost coverage

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The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated the policy will lead to 5.3 million more people being uninsured in the U.S. by 2034.

Eli McCreary of Omaha, Nebraska, said he had recently been diagnosed with kidney cancer when he got a call from a local hospital run by CHI Health. He said he was informed that he wasn’t insured anymore under Medicaid — and that the hospital would cancel his appointments unless he paid out-of-pocket.

McCreary, who was 64 at the time, said he phoned a call center for help. He said he was told his benefits under Medicaid, the government health program for people with low incomes or disabilities, now required that he have a job.

“You’re required to do work to stay on,” McCreary said a representative told him. “And you haven’t fulfilled your work requirement.”

For decades, McCreary said, he has battled drug addiction. A substance use treatment program discharged him in March, and in June he was diagnosed with cancer in his right kidney, according to documents reviewed by KFF Health News. He also has diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

“I don’t understand what job I can get,” McCreary said. “I can’t walk. I can hardly breathe. I can’t move around. What job am I going to get?”

McCreary said he canceled a CT scan and other tests at the hospital, which is part of CommonSpirit Health, the nation’s largest Catholic health system. He also delayed a cancer-related appointment with a physician who travels back and forth to Omaha. “I missed my window of opportunity with him for another month,” he said.

Taylor Miller, a spokesperson for CHI Health, declined to answer questions about McCreary’s experience. In an emailed statement she said that “CHI Health is committed to helping patients understand their health care coverage and access to care, including available financial assistance resources.”

Determined to be the first state to enforce Medicaid work requirements under President Donald Trump’s signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Nebraska launched the new rules May 1 — eight months before most states will do the same.

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen said in December that…

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