New Medicaid eligibility rules require proof of working at least 80 hours per month, putting farmworkers at risk of losing healthcare due to their inconsistent hours and frequent moves. The rule is expected to impact upwards of one million farmworkers who are U.S. citizens or legal residents, the majority of whom are Latino men and women.
Significance. These new requirements start Jan. 1 next year. They have already been soft launched and enacted in a few states like Georgia, Montana, and Nebraska.
Overlooked angle. Farmworkers work over 80 hours a month during peak harvest season, but less in other months. Many farmworkers in the off months take on other informal jobs in construction, landscaping, or home repair in which they don’t receive formal paychecks that they can use to prove Medicaid eligibility.
According to a 2025 study, about 75% of U.S. farmworkers rely on Medicaid for healthcare.
Who this impacts. America depends on 2.9 million farmworkers to harvest and feed the country, the majority of whom are Latino men and women. Since about two thirds of farmworkers rely on Medicaid, the economy could see a decline in farmworkers if they choose to pursue other lines of work that are more consistent and keep them eligible for Medicaid throughout the year.
In addition, agricultural work is one of the most dangerous occupations in the nation, which makes having healthcare even more essential to the career. It is associated with long-term health impacts and chronic illness due to unsafe work environments and exposure to harsh chemicals.
The power structure. Rates in farmworkers participating in federal help programs may decline out of worries that their information will get shared with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. Farmworkers with green cards and naturalized citizenship worry that personal information being shared makes them susceptible to being detained by ICE when going to check-ins and appointments. The Trump administration has employed tactics of using mandatory court check-ins as deportation traps, even though they were attending the meetings to follow immigration laws.
What experts say. With a lack of access to Medicaid healthcare, Adriana Cadena, the executive director of Protecting Immigrant Families, said, “People skip checkups and screenings, and conditions that could be caught early and treated cost-effectively.” Instead, Cadena said farmworkers tend to go to emergency rooms for healthcare, which “drives up waiting times and costs for all of us. … And when people are sick enough that they miss work. It starts a vicious cycle of lost productivity and family economic instability that again threatens all of us.”
