Three hours and nine minutes. That’s how long the average Connecticut resident spends in the emergency department at any one visit. With cuts in Medicaid, that time will only get longer.

 On July 4, 2025, President Donald Trump passed the Big Beautiful Bill, which includes major cuts to Medicaid funding. Out of nearly 926,700 CT residents who receive Medicaid, these cuts could remove coverage for up to 170,000 people, many of whom are children, seniors, people with disabilities, and working families already living paycheck-to-paycheck.

This is not a small policy change, but rather a shift with life-altering consequences.

 When people lose their only form of health insurance, they don’t stop needing medical care. They simply delay it. They wait until the infection spreads, the chest pain worsens, or the depression deepens. This is not out of choice, but because their immediate needs come first. Preventable conditions worsen, and what could have been treated quickly and affordably in a primary care office becomes an emergency medical crisis. 

That crisis typically lands in the emergency department: the single part of the healthcare system that is legally required to treat everyone, insured or not. However, ER care is the most expensive, least efficient form of healthcare. More ER use means longer wait times, more hospital crowding, and more delayed care for everyone. No one, not even those who can afford private insurance, is insulated from the consequence.

Not only are individual people impacted, but hospitals too. Medicaid provides significant reimbursements to hospitals and health systems like Yale New Haven and Hartford Healthcare, as well as smaller hospitals that serve rural and low-income regions. Connecticut’s hospitals are already strained and cuts will further threaten their operating budget, potentially leading to cuts in staffing, services, or both.

Vicky Wang

When there’s fewer staff in already short-staffed departments and fewer services, care becomes less available to those who need it the most.

This trend is not hypothetical. It is already happening. This past summer, when I had to schedule an appointment with my primary care practitioner, I was told that the earliest availability was in three months. When I called on September 5 for a specialty appointment at Yale New Haven, the first available date was September 9, 2026. If this is the system before thc cuts, what will it look like after?