Federal Social Safety Net Programs: Millions of Workers, Including Many Employed by Large Employers, Continue to Rely on Medicaid and SNAP [Reissued with revisions on Aug. 24, 2026]

Filed 1d ago · Via GAO · The Buffoon Desk

THIS STORY IS SCORED

Comic Plodding

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Marjory Collins · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

The Government Accountability Office reports that an estimated 13.8 million Medicaid enrollees and 10.6 million people in SNAP households worked at some point in 2024, with about two-thirds of each group working full-time. These workers were disproportionately employed in the private sector and in food service occupations, and were less likely than non-enrolled workers to sustain full-time hours year-round.

Looking at state-level employer data from September 2025, GAO identified 46 companies that ranked among the top 25 employers of Medicaid or SNAP recipients in at least two of the 11 states studied. Seventeen of those 46 were among the 50 largest Fortune 500 companies by employee count.

The report is an update to a 2020 GAO study on the same subject, requested to refresh the picture of who is working while relying on federal assistance.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

A report confirming that large, profitable employers rely on public benefits to subsidize their payrolls is not new information so much as a recurring performance review. The taxpayer keeps footing the bill; the invoice just gets reissued every few years with updated numbers.

Source: Read the original at GAO → Scored: Comic Plodding · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

Read it scored.

Every story, every clown, every kazoo — in your pocket. Music plays automatically. Regret is optional.

GET IT ON iOS GET IT ON ANDROID