Aaaaaand these aren't the people being targeted with the work requirements.

But those are people that will be hit with the work requirements.

I understand that the idea, or maybe the goal, is that only the deliberate shirkers will be thrown off Medicaid. But that's not what the law actually does.

That's the problem with these efforts. The population is an undifferentiable mix of people who are the sort that conservatives imagine they are targeting with these kinds of laws (the Willfully Indolent) and the people who cannot meet these work requirements. So when conservatives talk about the effect of the law, they imagine (and talk about) the people in the first group. When liberals talk about the effect of the law, they imagine (and talk about) the people in the second group. There are both Goofuses and Gallants that will be hurt by this measure.

Plus, there are lots of people who aren't receiving Medicaid that will be hurt by it as well - because Medicaid coverage of all these desperately poor people is what keeps a lot of hospitals and medical systems from collapsing in rural high-poverty areas. Those are often areas where education levels and access to jobs and transportation are lower than average....so imposing these types of requirements results in proportionally large numbers of hospitals and medical systems no longer being able to get revenues or reimbursements from treating these patients, and they fall apart.

You're ignoring why that is. The hint is that the drug problem in rural areas is just as bad as it is in the cities. Plus, the way to fix the problem in rural areas is not to increase the amount of public dole but rather to reconstitute many of the industries that have been outsourced to other places.

Regardless of whether that's either true or possible, that doesn't make your initial statement accurate. The people who are crippled by the horrors of the drug problem aren't people who "can work but choose not to." Nor are all the other people whose educational levels, physical or mental condition, or lack of transportation or housing or other material resources make it impossible for them to hold down a steady job....or to regularly complete the paperwork required to document their employment every six months.