Nearly 11,000 New Haveners could lose Medicaid coverage thanks to federal health insurance-limiting provisions included in President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” according to a new analysis from a local data-crunching nonprofit.
That projection was published by DataHaven on Wednesday, as part of a new report called “Coverage at Risk: Projected Losses in Medicaid and Access Health CT by Town and Community.”
The report looks at the impact that recent federal policy changes — and in particular the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” a massive tax, spending, and domestic policy bill passed by Congressional Republicans and signed by President Trump on July 4 — could have on the hundreds of thousands of Connecticut residents who receive health insurance through Medicaid or through Access Health CT.
According to DataHaven’s report, 76,266 New Haveners currently receive Medicaid, a federal health insurance program for the poor and people with disabilities.
DataHaven projects that 10,671 of those New Haveners — or around 8 percent of the city’s total population — could lose their Medicaid coverage, primarily thanks to the federal bill’s new work requirements.
“The administrative burden of meeting these extensive documentation requirements represents the primary driver of expected coverage losses,” the report states, “rather than people’s inability to meet the work requirements themselves.”
The report also warns that roughly 1,300 New Haveners could lose health insurance through Access Health CT, the state’s health insurance marketplace, thanks to this bill.
Click here to read the report in full, and here to read a press release about the report.
The report was authorized by Andrew Carr and by DataHaven Executive Director Mark Abraham.
“Healthcare coverage is a foundation for community well-being,” Abraham is quoted as saying in the press release. “Due to recent changes in federal policy, hundreds of thousands of Connecticut residents are at risk of losing access to affordable care. Without action, these losses will not only threaten individual health, but will deepen inequality in our state and strain the ability of our healthcare system to provide affordable care.”