Connecticut lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say they’re bracing for changes to Medicaid under President-elect Donald Trump’s administration.
Trump tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act — also called Obamacare — during his first term. The former and incoming president has called the law, which expanded Medicaid, a myriad of things. He claims it’s too expensive to run.
On his first day in office in 2017, he signed an executive order to “ease the burden” of Obamacare. President Joe Biden repealed it in January 2021.
During a debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump famously said he had “concepts of a plan” to replace the ACA. (He still has not released a plan.)
More than 900,000 Connecticut residents are on Medicaid, which the state calls Husky.
Connecticut House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora (R-Branford) said the impact of the new administration on his state was going to be “all financial.”
“It's going to be, how much Medicaid money are we going to be receiving,” Candelora said. “And those are going to be the tough conversations. To continue to point to political issues like reproductive rights, is sort of disappointing, because it's purely political, it's not substantive. We really have to focus on the substantive concerns, and I would say the biggest one is Medicaid.”
Connecticut has not broadly adjusted its Medicaid reimbursement rates for providers who treat low-income patients since 2007. However, some individual sectors of the healthcare industry have had their rates increased.
Senate President Martin Looney (D-New Haven) said he wants to raise Medicaid rates this session. He may even support the state declaring an emergency and cutting into the budget reserve to cover Medicaid costs.
“We already have … many medical providers who are not treating Medicaid patients. So we need to address that. But if the federal funds are withdrawn even more, there will be even more pressure on us, and I think it might be possible at some point that we would have to have an emergency declared that would also have to allow access to some of the budget reserve. Because that’s what it's supposed to be for — an emergency.”
Trump is set to take the oath of office on January 20.
