ICYMI in the Day: “People will die” from the Trump Administration’s Health Care Cuts

October 20, 2026 Press Release NORWICH, CT – In case you missed it in the Day, Congressman Joe Courtney (CT-02), Connecticut’s Attorney General William Tong, and Connecticut Department of Social Services Commissioner Andrea Barton Reeves hosted a roundtable with patient advocates to discuss impending health care cuts coming as a result of President Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” (H.R. 1), which passed Congress with only Republican votes and was signed into law by President Trump in July 2025. Image H.R. 1 made a nearly $1 trillion cut to Medicaid (HUSKY in Connecticut) to pay for a tax break for the top 1%. Under H.R. 1’s new Medicaid coverage requirements which begin on January 1st, 2027, it is estimated that 100,000 Connecticut residents will lose their HUSKY health care coverage. Courtney continues to fight against the Trump Administration’s implementation of H.R. 1’s Medicaid cuts, including a rule by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Department of Health and Human Services that would require cancer patients and patients suffering from other debilitating diseases to document that the disease actually impairs their ability to work or face losing their health care coverage. FROM THE DAY: Courtney described the new system imposed by the federal rules as “grotesque.” “If you think of cancer patients with pancreatic cancer having to go out and do job searches so they can get their chemo and medication. … It's just unimaginable,” Courtney said. “Hopefully, we're going to see a change, hopefully in courts, and eventually in Congress, that is going to reverse this move that is just taking our country backwards, not forwards.” Before and after Congressional Republicans passed H.R. 1, Congressman Courtney has railed against the Trump Administration’s health care cuts at town halls , visits to health care providers , and in Congressional committee hearings and House floor speeches . In the year since President Trump signed H.R. 1 into law, nearly eight million Americans lost their health care coverage. Millions more nationwide are expected to lose coverage when H.R. 1’s most significant health care cuts take effect on January 1 st . ### Issues : Health Care