Disabled adults covered through Michigan's Medicaid expansion must, starting January 1, 2027, qualify for an exemption or else report 80 hours a month of work, under a rule in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that federal regulators expect to shrink enrollment by 2.3 million people nationally in fiscal 2027. Tom Barrett's July 3, 2025 vote helped enact it, two months after his yes proved decisive in the House's first passage.
Barrett's votes also settled both 2025 budget resolutions, which set an $880 billion target for Medicaid's committee, and the optional home and community services that let people with disabilities live outside institutions are among the first benefits exposed when Medicaid budgets tighten.
Tom Barrett's Votes on Medicaid Work Rules and Home Care for People With Disabilities
- Disabled Healthy Michigan Enrollees Must Prove an Exemption or Log Work Hours to Keep Medicaid Under the Law Barrett Voted For, in 2025. Tom Barrett's July 3, 2025 yes helped pass the final law 218 to 214, and in May he had been one of the 215 who moved the House version by a single vote. The law obliges expansion adults to document 80 hours of work or comparable activity each month unless an exemption applies, for instance to a person "with a physical, intellectual or developmental disability that significantly impairs their ability to perform 1 or more activities of daily living." With the requirement in force, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services expects that "enrollment would be reduced by 2.3 million individuals in FY 2027."
- Disabled Michiganders' Home Care Is Exposed to Cuts After Barrett's Deciding Budget Votes, in 2025. Barrett's yes counted twice on H.Con.Res. 14: when the House adopted it 217 to 215 on February 25, 2025, and when the final version passed 216 to 214 on April 10; a lone switch by him would have deadlocked either vote, and a deadlocked resolution fails. It set the Medicaid committee's target: "reduce the deficit by not less than $880,000,000,000". Home and community-based services, the care that lets people with disabilities stay in their own homes, are "largely an optional Medicaid benefit," and that standing, the Bipartisan Policy Center says, makes them "more vulnerable to reductions during periods of state or federal budget constraints"; experts it cites expect the law to "slow or reverse recent HCBS expansion efforts" in the states.
What Tom Barrett's Votes Mean for Michiganders With Disabilities
- Up to 355,000 Michiganders are projected to lose Medicaid under the work and paperwork rules. The Urban Institute's projection, reported by Michigan Public, is that somewhere from 171,000 to 355,000 people in Michigan come off Medicaid because of the law's work requirements and its more frequent eligibility checks. For a disabled adult, an exemption the state never confirms or a form that goes missing can end the coverage that pays for medication, therapy and equipment.
- Medicaid home-care waiting lists in Michigan held 2,994 people before the cuts began. In 2026, KFF reports, 2,994 Michiganders sat on waiting lists for Medicaid's home-care waivers. Each name on those lists is someone waiting for help to live at home, and the law's Medicaid cuts leave the state with fewer federal dollars to clear them.
Frequently Asked Questions About Tom Barrett on Disability rights
What is Tom Barrett's record on disability rights under Trump?
On disability rights, Tom Barrett's record under Trump includes the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a law he voted for that leaves disabled adults in Michigan's Medicaid expansion to prove an exemption from its work requirement or report hours, and his yes votes decided both the House version and the 2025 budget resolutions that handed Medicaid's committee an $880 billion target. Federal regulators project the requirement alone cuts Medicaid enrollment by 2.3 million in fiscal 2027.
Do Michiganders with disabilities have to meet the Medicaid work rule Tom Barrett voted for?
Only those covered through Healthy Michigan, the state's Medicaid expansion, and not all of them: the law Tom Barrett voted for exempts people who are "medically frail," a category the law spells out as covering blind or disabled people, anyone with a disabling mental disorder, anyone with a serious or complex medical condition, and people whose disability makes daily activities hard to perform. Expansion adults no exemption covers must report 80 hours a month starting January 1, 2027.
How many people with disabilities in the Lansing-area 7th District are on the Medicaid that Tom Barrett voted to cut?
Tom Barrett's district, Michigan's 7th, had 8,300 Medicaid enrollees with disabilities in 2025, KFF's district data show. The federal Medicaid money that pays for their doctor visits, prescriptions and in-home help is the money the law Barrett voted for reduces by $31.6 billion in Michigan over ten years.
Last updated: 2026-10-27