About 700,000 Illinois adults who joined Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act expansion will have to show 80 hours a month of work, volunteering or school to keep their coverage. The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, known as HFS, began mailing notices to the group in early September. Current enrollees could start losing coverage in 2027, when their regularly scheduled renewal comes up.
Who is in the group of 700,000
HFS calls them ACA Adults. They are ages 19 through 64, earn less than 138 percent of the federal poverty level, have no related child under 18 at home and do not have Medicare Part A or B. Parents and caretaker relatives who live with a child are generally outside the group.
Officials estimate about half of the people being notified live in Cook County, WBEZ reported. Roughly 3 million Illinoisans, about 1 in 4, are on Medicaid in all, so the work rule reaches a large share of the program but not all of it…