Republicans manage to advance bills to keep jackpot winners off Medicaid

Rep. Michael Burgess said treating lump-sum, jackpot winnings of at least $80,000 as if they were obtained over multiple months would give Medicaid a better picture of whether someone needs to tap the safety-net program, since the enrollee’s income moving forward would not reflect the one-time windfall.

“I hope we can all agree that Powerball lottery winners should not be eligible to receive Medicaid,” said Mr. Burgess, Texas Republican and chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s panel on health.

The subcommittee approved the legislation, 20-11, with only one Democrat supporting the measure. A second bill, which would count annuity payments to a spouse against someone’s income threshold for Medicaid, passed along party lines.

Democrats rejected the bills as an inefficient attempt to strip benefits from certain families. They cited a lack of nationwide data on how many lottery winners are actually drawing from Medicaid, though GOP staff pointed to hundreds of winners in Michigan.

“These bills merely chip away at the program around its edges, making no meaningful improvements,” said Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the committee’s ranking Democrat.