Policymakers in Connecticut are considering expanding eligibility for HUSKY, Connecticut's Medicaid program, by removing immigration status requirements for additional groups of residents by age and eligibility category, including the potential expansion of HUSKY C, the program for residents who are ages 65 and older, blind, or disabled. In this report, the authors use microsimulation modeling to estimate the effects of these eligibility expansions.

Estimating the Effects of Further Expanding Health Insurance Coverage to Noncitizen Populations in Connecticut

Preethi Rao, Federico Girosi

ResearchPublished Jan 6, 2025

Policymakers in Connecticut have used state funding to expand eligibility for HUSKY, Connecticut's Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), to children (through age 15) and to pregnant people who do not qualify for federally funded Medicaid or CHIP coverage because of their immigration status. Policymakers are considering further expansions of eligibility for HUSKY for the remaining population of children and adults. In addition to expansions of HUSKY A (Medicaid for children, parents or caregivers, and pregnant people), HUSKY B (CHIP), and HUSKY D (Medicaid for adults without minor children), policymakers are also considering expanding eligibility for HUSKY C, the program for residents who are ages 65 and older, blind, or disabled, to immigrants. In this report, the authors use microsimulation modeling to estimate the effects of expanding HUSKY eligibility to additional groups by age and eligibility category.

Key Findings

  • Expanding Medicaid and CHIP eligibility to children ages 16–18 and young adults ages 19–25 would substantially reduce uninsurance among this population and comes at a relatively low cost to Connecticut.
  • Further expanding Medicaid eligibility to the remaining adult population via HUSKY A, B, and D would increase insurance coverage by a greater proportion among adults through age 64 but to a much lesser extent among adults ages 65 and older because these adults do not qualify for HUSKY D (Medicaid for adults ages 19–64 without minor children) and would gain coverage via HUSKY A only if they were parents or caregivers to a minor child.
  • Expanding HUSKY C to all adults would reduce uninsurance among seniors by nearly 40 percentage points but would substantially increase costs to Connecticut because of the more generous coverage of long-term care under HUSKY C.
  • Allowing seniors to enroll in HUSKY D would result in almost as large of an increase in insurance coverage among adults ages 65 and older as the HUSKY C expansion but at a lower cost to the state. However, this would involve a difference in eligibility requirements relative to the federally funded HUSKY D program.

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Rao, Preethi and Federico Girosi, Estimating the Effects of Further Expanding Health Insurance Coverage to Noncitizen Populations in Connecticut, RAND Corporation, RR-A3474-1, 2025. As of April 8, 2025: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA3474-1.html

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Rao, Preethi and Federico Girosi, Estimating the Effects of Further Expanding Health Insurance Coverage to Noncitizen Populations in Connecticut. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2025. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA3474-1.html.
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This research was sponsored by the Universal Health Care of Connecticut and the HUSKY 4 Immigrants Coalition and carried out within the Payment, Cost, and Coverage Program in RAND Health Care.

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