Part-time workers insured by Medicaid are bracing to navigate sweeping changes to the program’s work requirements under the Trump administration.
“It causes me tremendous distress,” said Christina Wolney, 42. “All my conditions are affected by increased stress, and I feel them all being exacerbated.”
Wolney said she has narcolepsy, post traumatic stress disorder and gastroparesis, a condition where the stomach muscles don’t quite work.
The emergency room used to be where she got care. But in 2010, Connecticut expanded its Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
As a result, Wolney said her ER visits dropped and she found a job.
Today, she works at a college bookshop in Willimantic, Connecticut, where she said she makes slightly more than minimum wage.
“I work 20 hours a week on average,” she said. “But when the company’s not doing well or if it's a slow week, or they expect a slow week, then my hours might be cut. And on a busy time my hours might go up.”
That poses a problem because new federal requirements for people in the Medicaid expansion group are conditional on 80 hours of work each month. That means Wolney could lose Medicaid if her hours fall short.
And that’s not all. In addition to new hour requirements, changes beginning January 2027 will also require Wolney, and others like her, to provide documentation every six months to show that they are indeed working.
Proponents say the changes will reduce Medicaid fraud and lower federal costs. But data shows the majority of Medicaid recipients under the age of 65 are already working, according to KFF. Nationally, Medicaid covers the health care costs for about 1 in 5 people.
Local impact of federal changes
Sean Scanlon, Connecticut’s comptroller, said the documentation requirements could be a difficult ask for the majority of workers.
“They're raising their kids, they're working a few jobs, they're trying to care for their children and their loved ones,” Scanlon said. “[Then] there's this arbitrary thing that they have to do just to verify … what they all know they're already doing.”
Scanlon, a Democrat, said the Medicaid changes under the Trump administration will also create more costs for states – and state taxpayers.
“Kentucky spent over $200 million building a work requirement system that they never even got off the ground,” Scanlon said. “It was challenged in court, and even before it was challenged in court, they were having trouble rolling it out.”
Work requirements in Arkansas and Georgia have also resulted in thousands of people losing their health insurance, according to Georgetown University.
In Connecticut, a July report from Scanlon’s office, estimated that between 100,000 and 200,000 Medicaid recipients in Connecticut could lose their coverage under the changes, including work requirements and documentation.
Scanlon said 80% of people on Medicaid in Connecticut currently have some form of employment.
Wolney, the worker at the bookstore in Willimantic, said in the past few years, she’s had to cope with her rent doubling and paying off student loans.
She said she has a master’s in psychology and is working to get a certification in counseling. Her ability to work and study was a result of her Medicaid coverage, she said.
But with the new changes under the Trump administration, Wolney said she is not clear how the state will document additional reporting requirements or if her conditions will allow for an exemption.
“I feel like I’m the poster child for the things that people fear might happen,” she said.
“You can trace back my medical problems before the expansion of Medicaid, getting better and getting a job and contributing to my community while I have Medicaid,” she said. “And then, the idea of losing Medicaid and backtracking and losing all that stuff that I've built is terrifying.”
