Medicaid work requirements · Nevada

Medicaid work requirements in Nevada: who is subject and who loses coverage (2027)

Data snapshot 2026-06-03 · part of These 5 Million People Are About to Lose Their Medicaid — But They Don't Have To

Nevada expanded Medicaid, so the federal work requirement that takes effect January 1, 2027 applies to its expansion adults. About 265,520 of them (13.9% of an expansion pool of 283,845) will have to prove 80 hours a month of work, school, or service, or an exemption, to keep coverage.

This model's bottom-up estimate is that 83,853 people in Nevada lose coverage by 2034: 75,887 of them still eligible but lost to paperwork and reporting failures, and 7,966 not meeting the requirement. Nationally the same model gives 5,461,400, against CBO's 5,200,000.

Whether those eligible people keep coverage depends on the state's ability to renew them automatically (ex parte) from data it already holds. Nevada scores 72 of 100 on this model's ex parte capability index, a low band; its eligibility system is ACCESS Nevada.

Key figures

Model v2-2026-06-03. "Strict" counts adults whose ACS record shows them subject with no observable exemption; "permissive" allows the broader exemption reading.
MeasureNevada
Expansion stateYes
Subject to the requirement via waiverNo
Expansion pool (adults 19 to 64)283,845
Adults subject, strict definition265,520
Adults subject, permissive definition260,210
Share of expansion pool subject13.9%
Projected coverage loss by 203483,853
Hardship exception statusAdopting
Early implementerNo
Ex parte capability score (0 to 100)72 (low)

Who is subject in Nevada

Of the 265,520 subject adults, 40% already work 80 or more hours a month and 54% are not working. 40% have a child under 14 at home. Among those not working, 41% report a disability and 20% are caregivers.

ACS PUMS 5-year 2020 to 2024, subject adults only.
CharacteristicShare of subject adults
Age 19-2412%
Age 25-3426%
Age 35-4421%
Age 45-5418%
Age 55-6424%
Not working54%
1 to 19 hours a month1%
20 to 79 hours a month6%
80 or more hours a month (meets the bar)40%
Not working: Disabled41%
Not working: Caregiver20%
Not working: Postpartum0%
Not working: Student4%
Not working: Other34%

Why eligible people lose coverage

Of the 83,853 projected to lose coverage in Nevada, 75,887 meet the requirement or qualify for an exemption but fail to document it. 26,888 of those are working people who cannot prove their hours through data the state can see, and 49,000 qualify for an exemption the state does not detect automatically.

Bottom-up model v8.0-2026-05-30; documentation-failure buckets compound over the 14 six-month renewal cycles through 2034.
GroupProjected to lose coverage
Multiple part-time jobs (aggregation failure)6,870
Self-employed (other)6,483
Variable shifts / on-call work5,767
Full-time students not auto-verified1,933
Gig / courier (DoorDash, Uber, Lyft, Instacart)1,931
Volunteering / job training1,616
Seasonal: agriculture, hospitality, food service1,484
Cash-paid construction & trades803
Parent caregivers of children ≤13 without auto-match13,396
Medically frail without auto-match12,550
Caregivers of a disabled adult11,055
Kinship caregivers (non-parent) of children ≤133,191
American Indian / Alaska Native (tribal exemption)3,029
SUD treatment not flagged in claims data2,646
Recent incarceration (data-match gap)1,579
Other categorical exemptions (foster, AYA cancer, SNAP/TANF)1,371
Pregnancy / postpartum data lag183

Can the state renew people automatically?

The ex parte capability index blends the state's observed automatic-renewal rate (84% in CMS eligibility-processing data), the wage, disability, and other data sources it can query, and its history of churn. Nevada's composite score is 72 (low band). A low score means more eligible people will be dropped for paperwork unless the state changes its process before January 1, 2027.

ComponentScore
Composite72
Observed ex parte84
Core capability62
Data sources65
Historical churn50

How subjects overlap across exemption categories

Each subject adult sits in exactly one cell. Categories: Working ≥ qualifying hours / income; Parent caregiver of child ≤13; Medically frail; Full-time student.
CombinationAdultsShare
None of the four95,51036.0%
Working ≥ qualifying hours / income53,09920.0%
Working ≥ qualifying hours / income + Parent caregiver of child ≤1341,72315.7%
Medically frail30,60511.5%
Parent caregiver of child ≤1319,6247.4%
Full-time student9,7803.7%
Working ≥ qualifying hours / income + Full-time student4,6591.8%
Working ≥ qualifying hours / income + Medically frail2,8831.1%

Counties in Nevada

Subject adults concentrate: Clark County (188,533), Washoe County (43,568), and Lyon County (5,791) account for 90% of the state's subject population.

All 17 counties in Nevada with subject adults, sorted by count. County figures are model allocations of the state estimate by ACS tract characteristics.
CountyAdults subjectSubject rateProjected lossPoverty rateWorking-age population
Clark County188,53313.3%59,54013.0%1,416,675
Washoe County43,56814.5%13,75911.0%300,323
Lyon County5,79116.5%1,82910.0%35,090
Nye County5,61820.0%1,77415.0%28,126
Douglas County5,35320.9%1,6917.0%25,588
Carson City5,03114.9%1,58911.0%33,788
Elko County4,74314.8%1,49810.0%32,134
Churchill County2,13214.8%67310.0%14,384
Humboldt County1,55916.1%49214.0%9,717
White Pine County73914.5%2349.0%5,112
Lander County54716.7%17311.0%3,276
Storey County44220.8%1409.0%2,120
Pershing County43710.4%13810.0%4,220
Lincoln County40017.2%1267.0%2,324
Mineral County32413.6%10218.0%2,383
Eureka County22926.1%7218.0%880
Esmeralda County7311.3%2316.0%641

State brief and methodology

Estimates, not counts. The model rakes to CBO's national subject total and allocates by ACS microdata; state agencies hold the administrative data that would replace these figures.

Sources

Back to These 5 Million People Are About to Lose Their Medicaid — But They Don't Have To