The "Big Beautiful Bill" passed by Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump will cause low-income Americans to lose health coverage and government food assistance, mostly because of new administrative burdens put in place.
Ford School professor Pamela Herd, Carol Kakalec Kohn Professor of Social Policy, told The New York Times, “A lot of currently eligible people are actually going to lose benefits. Not because they’re ineligible, but because they can’t handle the set of massive roadblocks Republicans are putting in their way.”
In an interview with NPR, the Ford School's Don Moynihan made a similar point. "The largest effect is to get people who are working and put them in a situation where they're caught in this administrative trap that they simply can't get around... And so they tend to lose benefits even though they are actually fulfilling the requirements. It's the paperwork that catches them... Bureaucracies can often generate administrative burdens inadvertently, but they can also be deliberately created by policymakers who want to reduce the cost of programs by making it more difficult for people to access them."
How the G.O.P. Bill Saves Money: Paperwork, Paperwork, Paperwork, The New York Times, July 1, 2025
Republicans look to Medicaid work requirements to save taxpayer money in budget bill, NPR, June 30, 2025
