In 2020, by an extremely narrow margin, Oklahoma voters opted to expand the state’s Medicaid program to provide medical welfare benefits to able-bodied adults with lower earnings and no children.

That expansion has diverted hundreds of millions of dollars away from other uses in the years since, and the price tag could be set to soon explode by as much as $700 million per year. Federal officials have indicated the state match for those able-bodied adults may be increased to roughly the same level as the state match for children, pregnant women, and disabled people on Medicaid.

However, congressional officials have also proposed allowing states to impose work requirements on able-bodied adults who have no children and receive Medicaid welfare benefits.

The proposed work requirement could be met by spending 80 hours a month either working, going to school, participating in a work program, or doing community service. That amounts to less than four hours a weekday.

The work-requirement provision could allow Oklahoma to significantly reduce the number of people on Medicaid and the associated taxpayer costs.

Kevin Corinth, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, has estimated that between 40 percent and 56 percent of childless, non-disabled Medicaid recipients age 19–64 would not have been in compliance with the proposed work requirements in 2022.

An April report from the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, which administers the Medicaid program, shows that 229,154 able-bodied adults in Oklahoma currently have their health-care costs paid by taxpayers through Medicaid expansion.

So, what are those able-bodied, childless adults doing instead of working or looking for a job while they receive taxpayer-funded Medicaid benefits? Corinth’s research indicates that those individuals are living up to negative stereotypes: Many literally sit around playing video games and watching TV.

Corinth examined data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) as well as the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC), which asks about health insurance coverage two to five months before individuals received the time-use survey.

Corinth found that many able-bodied, childless adults on Medicaid spend much of their time on leisure activities rather than seeking employment.

“For Medicaid recipients who do not report working, the most common activity after sleeping is watching television and playing video games,” Corinth wrote. “They spend 4.2 hours per day watching television and playing video games, or 125 hours during a 30-day month. That is more than 50 percent higher than the 80 hours they would be required to work or otherwise engage with the community during at least some months under the reconciliation bill.

“They spend on average 6.1 hours per day, or 184 hours per month on all socializing, relaxing, and leisure activities (including television and video games),” Corinth continued. “In the average day, they spend about 0.36 hours (i.e., 22 minutes) looking for work, 4.0 hours doing housework and errands, and 0.47 hours (i.e., 28 minutes) caring for others.”

Corinth’s research has drawn the attention of some federal lawmakers.

In a statement released on X by the press office of U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, the congressman bluntly noted, “A new study shows common activities for Medicaid recipients who are NOT EMPLOYED are watching TV, playing video games, and sleeping. Medicaid was intended to assist vulnerable populations like the disabled—not Americans who REFUSE to go to work. REFORM Medicaid.”