HARTFORD, Conn. (Aug. 8, 2024) – Thousands of Connecticut parents could be at risk of losing health care coverage under a cut to Medicaid eligibility passed this year. It will be critical for the state to monitor the cut’s impact and make plans to address potential negative effects, according to a policy brief released by the Connecticut Health Foundation.
The eligibility change affects low-income parents and other relatives who care for minor children. An estimated 15,300 people are slated to lose eligibility for HUSKY in a two-phase process, beginning with approximately 1,530 parents in October, and affecting the remaining 13,770 in 2025. Under the new income limits, a single parent of one child who works full-time at minimum wage would no longer be eligible for HUSKY.
Many of the parents losing HUSKY coverage will be eligible for no-cost insurance through Covered Connecticut, which uses state and federal money to discount the cost of coverage through the state’s health insurance marketplace, Access Health CT. However, some of these parents will be ineligible for Covered Connecticut if they are offered insurance through their jobs, even if those plans include high deductibles that can make getting care unaffordable to low-income parents. In addition, some of the federal funding that helps to pay for Covered Connecticut is slated to expire at the end of 2025.
“Connecticut has a fantastic track record of increasing access to health care coverage, but this cut could impact our state’s progress,” said Tiffany Donelson, president and CEO of the Connecticut Health Foundation. “If this change is not implemented carefully or monitored, we are deeply concerned that parents will become uninsured, jeopardizing their health.”
“Covered Connecticut is an excellent option for people whose incomes are just above the limit for Medicaid and have not had access to affordable coverage in the past,” Donelson said. “However, it is most effective as a way to increase coverage options for people, not a mechanism to roll back HUSKY. We are especially concerned about those who lose Medicaid coverage but do not qualify for Covered Connecticut, and for those who may have challenges navigating to a new insurance plan. Similarly, we are worried about the possibility of a significant decrease in federal funding for Covered Connecticut after 2025. It is critical for our state to have a plan for monitoring the effect of these cuts, ensuring that these parents stay covered, and restore eligibility if this change leads to coverage losses.”
The report recommends Connecticut take five steps to ensure adults do not become uninsured:
- Ensure there is navigation support for people losing HUSKY coverage, to assist them in identifying their options to stay covered.
- Identify how many people will not be eligible for Covered Connecticut, and make a plan for them.
- Make a plan for what to do if the enhanced federal subsidies expire, and budget accordingly.
- Conduct patient experience surveys of affected parents.
- Require monitoring of data on those losing coverage, including enrollment, access to care, and the impact on the number of households with unaffordable health care costs.
The eligibility cut was passed as part of the ARPA budget implementation bill during the 2024 legislative session. It lowers HUSKY eligibility for parents and other caretakers of minor children from 160% of the federal poverty level to 138% of the federal poverty level. For a family of two, this lowers the income limit from $32,704 per year to $28,207.
“We appreciate Connecticut’s longstanding work toward assuring that all state residents have health care coverage, and we hope that our state leaders will continue to find ways to make progress and ensure that these parents have an affordable way to stay covered,” Donelson said.
For more information, please contact Arielle Levin Becker at arielle@cthealth.org or 860-724-1580 x 116.