Federal Health Policy in Focus: Insights from Connecticut’s Congressional Delegation is a special editorial series from CT Health News designed to highlight the healthcare priorities of the members of Connecticut’s congressional delegation. The members of our delegation have been invited to share their perspectives on the federal policies and issues they believe should be top priorities for improving health and healthcare, both in Connecticut and across the nation.   Through this series, CT Health News aims to provide Connecticut’s healthcare community with a window into how our state’s leaders in Washington are thinking about the future of healthcare and health policy.

We continue the series with insights from Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro.   Congresswoman DeLauro has represented Connecticut’s Third Congressional District since 1991, serving communities from New Haven to the Naugatuck Valley. She is Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee and of the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Subcommittee, where she helps guide federal investments in healthcare, education, and workforce programs.

A longtime advocate for working families, DeLauro has championed policies including paid leave, equal pay, and expansions of the Child Tax Credit. She is also a national leader on child nutrition, food safety reform, and biomedical research funding, and a strong supporter of the Affordable Care Act. Before Congress, she served in senior public service roles, including as chief of staff to former Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd.

President Trump’s Healthcare Crisis

Americans are experiencing a cost of living crisis. Half of Americans say it is harder to afford groceries today than a year ago, according to a survey by Axios. The average annual cost of up 30 percent from 2020, to nearly $13,000 for a single child.

But for many families, their biggest challenge is the constantly rising cost of healthcare. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, Americans are now paying on average over $1,500 every year in out-of-pocket costs for deductibles, co-pays, and other charges not covered by insurance—not counting the monthly costs of the premiums themselves.

People are living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to pay the bills, and just trying to keep their heads above water. But President Trump is refusing to throw them a lifeline. In fact, he is making it worse.

By refusing to extend premium subsidies for people buying their coverage on the Affordable Care Act health insurance exchanges, like Access Health CT, and by making nearly $1 trillion worth of cuts to Medicaid as part of his “Big Beautiful Bill”, President Trump has made sure the cost of healthcare will continue its skyward trajectory.

Let us start with the devastation of ACA exchanges. Last year, over 143,000 Connecticut residents received those tax credits to purchase insurance through Access Health.

I recently spoke with two constituents, who are married and work for a small independently owned business. Their premiums were set to increase $3,000 a month. For households like this, who are seeing the cost of living go up year after year, these additional costs are beyond anything they could afford by tightening their belts or picking up an extra shift. There was nothing else they could do besides taking the risk of not purchasing insurance.  

Fortunately, our state government has stepped in to help stabilize these exchanges, utilizing $500 million from our state emergency fund to cover some of the costs and help this couple. I worked with Governor Lamont to make this happen, but our state has limited resources and cannot fully replace the federal subsidy for everyone. Some people will be left behind, or have fewer plans to choose from.

That is before we consider President Trump’s massive $1 trillion cut to Medicaid, which will hit Connecticut’s HUSKY program to the tune of $10 billion. Simply put--the State of Connecticut is going to be forced to decide which services to cover, who should remain covered, and more. Connecticut families will lose services and suffer as a result. Research shows that when federal funding for Medicaid decreases, states frequently cut optional benefits first—including Home and Community Based Services, which are vital to helping disabled and elderly individuals meet their health care needs in the comfort of their own homes, rather than relying on nursing homes, which could lead to overcrowding.

Additionally, paperwork requirements in the Big Beautiful Bill will penalize Medicaid enrollees who are looking for a job, are having difficulty finding employment, or who lack reliable transportation to work. That includes nearly 2.6 million adults with disabilities nationwide and have difficulty working due to disability or illness. These individuals could lose their coverage, as thousands of individuals did in Arkansas and George when similar requirements were implemented.

But as we all know, just because people do not have access to insurance coverage, that does not mean they do not need healthcare services. It just means that they may not seek care until the need is much more acute. They may skip primary care appointments that could prevent illnesses from getting worse, or conduct early screenings to detect serious diseases like cancer. 

Later, when these people show up at urgent care or the emergency room without insurance, they cannot be turned away. But when they cannot pay the bill, the costs of that uncompensated care are passed on to hospitals and taxpayers. Even for those whose insurance comes from their employer, not Medicaid, their rates will be affected.

Between the cuts to Medicaid and the ACA, it is estimated by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that the Republicans’ healthcare bill will drive up the costs of uncompensated care nationwide by $7.7 billion, with $1 billion of that falling on physician offices and hospitals.

In Connecticut, between HUSKY and Access Health CT, those losses could be nearly $488 million. That much of an increase will ripple throughout our entire healthcare sector, jeopardizing our hospitals and health care workers.

These are only a few of the devastating impacts that President Trump and his Republican allies in Congress have unleashed with their two-pronged assault on healthcare access. It is unacceptable to be pulling the rug out from under Americans during a cost of living crisis.

This is why Congress must roll back this Administration’s reckless assault on Medicaid—in full. We need to restore the ACA subsidies and roll back the destructive cuts and changes to Medicaid. That will be my priority once Democrats take back the House. But until then, we must channel public outrage at these cuts, which are crushing families. This is President Trump’s healthcare crisis, and we will not let anyone forget it.