Lesser: Latest Federal Proposal Confirms Worst Fears

HARTFORD, CT — For Sen. Matt Lesser, D-Middletown, the new proposal from the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce on budget reconciliation represents confirmation of his worst fears with respect to Medicaid.

“Republicans in Washington are going to try to pay for the Trump/Elon Musk tax cuts by taking an ax to the Medicaid program that one-third of the children in Connecticut, two-thirds of people with disabilities, and two-thirds of seniors in long-term care rely on,” Lesser said at a news conference Monday.

In particular, Lesser, who co-chairs the state Human Services Committee, said the proposal freezes hospital tax payments, a move he called “devastating” to almost every hospital in the state but particularly so to those in rural areas.

The proposal also bans funding for Planned Parenthood and attacks health care for LGBT children by prohibiting gender-affirming care, he said. The proposal also would cut the state’s Medicaid funding by about a half billion dollars if Connecticut uses its own funds to pay for health care for migrant children, Lesser said.

Sen. Matt Lesser speaks about potential cuts to Medicaid programs during a press conference at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford on May 12, 2025. Credit: Donald Eng / CTNewsJunkie

Lesser was joined by Pareesa Charmchi Goodwin, executive director of the General Assembly’s Commission on Racial Equity in Public Health, and Tom Swan, executive director of the Connecticut Citizen Action Group.

The commission’s role is to provide non-partisan policy analysis and recommendations on issues of racial equity and public health, Goodwin said.

“We like to think of it as we want everyone in the state of Connecticut to be healthy regardless of their race or income or demographic differences,” she said. 

Goodwin referred to some of the planned provisions, including the requirements for states to institute copays and work requirements that Lesser referred to as a “job loss penalty” as amounting to what a paperwork tax.

“It is a lot of additional layers of administration and bureaucracy that are very difficult for people to navigate,” she said. “And people end up losing benefits.”

She called the potential new challenges for people, “deeply, deeply concerning.”

Swan referred to Medicaid as “the cornerstone of health care in the United States” and said the provisions represented a “level of cruelty and evilness” that he called unbelievable.

“To yank health care from kids, from senior citizens, in order to fund a tax cut for Elon Musk?” he said.

In response to a question about whether he objected to the idea of a work requirement, Lesser said he did.

“What it really is is a job-loss penalty.You lose your job you also lose your health insurance,” he said. “It’s tough enough when you’re a low-wage worker to lose your job, but this is particularly devastating to folks.”

He said experience in other states had shown that such requirements do not push people back into employment quicker, but rather strips their health care for paperwork reasons.

“And it’s just one punch on top of another,” he said.