Connecticut officials are scrambling to read and react to the wide-ranging budget bill signed by President Donald Trump (R) on Friday.
On Monday, Governor Ned Lamont (D) said the legislature should be ready for a special session to address looming federal cuts by September.
The bill, narrowly passed by Congress, has been months in the making. Still, the state Department of Social Services Commissioner Andrea Barton Reeves said they didn’t have the specifics on things like the new work requirements for Medicaid, which is called HUSKY health in Connecticut, until the bill passed, which made it hard to plan.
“Without having had those work requirement rules, without having had the final version of the bill, all we could really do is take very educated guesses as to what might happen,” Barton Reeves said.
Georgia is the only state with work requirements for Medicaid. Barton Reeves said her team is racing to figure out who will be subject to the new rule, how the state will implement it, and how to explain it to beneficiaries.
Barton Reeves pointed to recent findings from the Kaiser Family Foundation, which show that 73% of Medicaid and 60% of SNAP recipients in Connecticut are already working.
Work requirements won’t begin until January 2027. Connecticut Democrats are quick to note that’s after the 2026 midterms.
“This bill changed 30 times in the last 30 days,” Lamont said. “It just passed, whatever it was, 72 hours ago. We're going over everything. Every one of our commissioners is going over, how will it impact your budget now, and how will it impact it over the next five years?”
“One of the reasons is cynical,” he continued. “A lot of the worst effects happen after the midterms.”
Republicans, including President Trump, have denied that the bill will cut Medicaid.
“There will be no cuts to Medicaid,” a fact sheet from the White House reads. “The One Big Beautiful Bill protects and strengthens Medicaid for those who rely on it—pregnant women, children, seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income families—while eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse. The One Big Beautiful Bill removes illegal aliens, enforces work requirements, and protects Medicaid for the truly vulnerable.”
