Keep Your Care Launches $2M Push Ahead of Medicaid Work Rules

A new nonprofit campaign called "Keep Your Care" launched Wednesday with $2 million in funding to help Medicaid recipients understand and keep their coverage before federal work and reporting requirements take effect Jan. 1, according to NBC News, which was given exclusive access to the rollout.

The requirements, described by NBC News as the most substantial change to Medicaid in decades, put roughly 10 million Americans at risk of losing coverage starting in January. Wednesday marked 100 days before the rules go into effect.

What Changes on Jan. 1?

Starting Jan. 1, most eligible adults on Medicaid will need to complete 80 hours per month of work or community service to keep their coverage, per NBC News. The requirement stems from the "big, beautiful bill" signed into law by President Donald Trump last year. Recipients who qualify for an exemption — including full-time caregivers — will not have to meet the work threshold, but they will have to prove their exempt status to a Medicaid worker every six months.

Who Started Keep Your Care, and What Does It Do?

Keep Your Care is an independent nonprofit that launched its campaign Wednesday, the same day NBC News reported on it. The group's stated goal is to educate both state agencies and individual Medicaid recipients about the new rules before they take effect, giving states time to prepare their verification systems and giving recipients time to gather the paperwork they will need.

By the Numbers

• $2 million — funding behind the Keep Your Care education campaign
• 10 million — Americans NBC News reports are at risk of losing Medicaid coverage under the new rules
• 100 days — the countdown to the Jan. 1 start date as of Wednesday's launch
• 80 hours — the monthly work or community service requirement for most eligible adults
• 6 months — how often exempt recipients, such as caregivers, must reprove their exemption status

How Is One Virginia Family Already Affected?

Melanie and Greg Stephens live in a small town outside Richmond, Virginia, and are full-time caregivers for their disabled daughter, Rachel. On Aug. 31, the family got a letter in the mail explaining the new guidelines, according to NBC News.

"When I received the letter about all the changes coming up, I had a panic attack because I was like, 'Oh, my gosh, what does this mean?'" Melanie Stephens told NBC News.

As caregivers, the Stephenses are exempt from the 80-hour work requirement. But they still have to prove that exemption every six months, and Greg Stephens said the family's bigger worry is what happens once their paperwork leaves their hands.

"Once it leaves us and goes to a Medicaid worker to process, that's where we are concerned they're going to miss a deadline or fall through the cracks, and we have no control over that," Greg Stephens told NBC News.

What Do Supporters and Critics Say About the Rules?

Republicans who backed the work requirements say they address wasteful spending in Medicaid. Health care advocates counter that the administrative steps involved — proving hours worked or an exemption status, and doing so on a recurring schedule — could cause eligible people to lose coverage simply because of paperwork errors or missed deadlines, not because they fail to qualify.

Virginia Health Secretary Marvin Figueroa described the burden facing recipients like the Stephenses in blunt terms, telling NBC News it amounts to "fighting government for something that you're entitled to." Figueroa pointed to the debate that preceded the bill's passage as context for why states are now racing to prepare verification systems before the January deadline.

Medicaid Work Requirement Terms, Explained

Work requirement: The mandate that most eligible adult Medicaid recipients complete 80 hours per month of work or community service to keep coverage, starting Jan. 1.

Reporting requirement: The paperwork recipients must file, on a recurring basis, to document either their work hours or their exemption status.

Exemption: A status — such as being a full-time caregiver for a disabled family member — that excuses a recipient from the 80-hour work threshold but still requires periodic proof, in this case every six months.

Coverage risk: NBC News' estimate that roughly 10 million Americans could lose Medicaid coverage, not necessarily because they are ineligible, but because they fail to complete or file the new documentation on time.

States have 100 days from Wednesday's launch to get verification systems ready, and Keep Your Care's organizers say their $2 million campaign is aimed squarely at that window — reaching recipients like the Stephens family before the January deadline arrives.