House Votes to Address $300M Medicaid Shortfall

UPDATED 3:31 p.m. — A declaration of “extraordinary” circumstances from Gov. Ned Lamont cleared the way for the General Assembly to fund Medicaid for the remainder of the 2025 fiscal year.

“Our most vulnerable residents, including seniors and those with disabilities, receive health coverage through Medicaid and it is important that we authorize the funding necessary to ensure these payments continue to be made and people can access the care they need,” Lamont said.

Gov. Ned Lamont listens to a reporter’s question about Medicaid funding and the state budget on Monday, May 19, 2025, outside the State Armory with the Legislative Office Building and state Capitol in the background. Credit: Donald Eng / CTNewsJunkie

The issue is affecting multiple states and is caused by numerous factors, including increasing costs and increasing usage of medical care, Lamont said.

According to the Department of Social Services, the department will need about $284 million to continue making payments to health care providers. More than 900,000 state residents receive health coverage through Medicaid, according to the department.

Monday afternoon, the House approved the move as part of an appropriations deficiency bill that cleared the chamber 98-46, with 7 members not voting or absent. The bill immediately went to the Senate, where it was expected to pass Monday evening.

Earlier in the day, House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, had predicted the measures to address the shortfall would pass the House sometime Monday afternoon, and then proceed to the Senate for approval.

The plan, he said, was to allocate funds from the state surplus to cover the shortfall. 

“We have the cash to pay it down,” he said. “We still will end the year with a multi-billion dollar surplus.”

The allocation, Ritter said, would also give the state some operating surplus to carry forward to the 2026 fiscal year. That also is important to securing an overall budget deal, he said.

Ritter also said the Medicaid funding was “not a guardrail issue,” referring to a group of rules collectively referred to as the state’s fiscal guardrails, designed to limit spending increases.

The state’s spending cap can be exceeded under certain circumstances, he said.

“In this case, we’re actually just doing it for Medicaid,” he said. “So there’s no cap room created from it, we’re just paying it down in cash.”

House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, said the state’s Medicaid fund was “in crisis … because of the inaction of the governor and the Democrat majority over the past year.”

Candelora said he “will not be supporting this scheme in order to allow more spending next year and violate our spending cap.”

He called the Democrats’ plan to pay down the Medicaid shortfall “a classic gimmick.”

“Make no mistake, this emergency declaration that the governor is doing today, is not to pay down a Medicaid overage, but it’s to allow the Democrats to violate the spending cap next year and spend an additional $250 million that we are not allowed to spend under our constitution.”

Lamont, though denied the Medicaid funding would affect future spending caps.

“Just the opposite,” he said. “An emergency is a one-time thing.”