Up to 175,000 MassHealth Members Face Coverage Loss Under New Work Requirements

By Ella Adams

In August 2026, MassHealth will begin notifying members about the Medicaid changes within the July 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act that may affect them. The agency’s “OB3 Timeline” lists Oct. 1, 2026 as a date that “some OB3 provisions that affect Alien Medicaid Eligibility for noncitizens take effect.”

MassHealth estimates that up to 7,300 members could lose comprehensive MassHealth coverage because of their immigration status. The agency also notes Jan. 1, 2027 as the date some MassHealth members will have to comply with work requirements and eligibility checks every six months to receive coverage, estimating approximately 175,000 people will lose MassHealth coverage due to the new policy.

Asked last Wednesday on “Boston Public Radio” if the cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid have come to Massachusetts yet, Gov. Maura Healey emphatically said yes and tied the issue to the upcoming midterm elections.

“Oh yeah, they’ve come,” Healey told co-hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan. “Every day, you know, we’re dealing with the impact of this as we go through workforce eligibility requirements. That’s absolutely already had an effect, and it’s going to be more devastating unless, you know, we get a new Congress in.”

The law has already impacted SNAP eligibility, Pluribus News reported, as states across the country prepare for more, alongside Medicaid changes. States will be required to partly cover the cost of nutrition benefits if they don’t reduce SNAP payment error rates below 6% by October 2027, according to Pluribus, which reported from the National Conference of State Legislators in Chicago last week that state leaders are rushing to “more accurately calculate” SNAP payments as NCSL and other organizations are requesting that Congress give them more time.