On October 1, up to 25,000 people living legally in New Jersey could lose their health coverage.
That's the state's own estimate, reported by the New Jersey Monitor. The cut comes from Trump's budget bill, which limits which groups of noncitizens can get Medicaid. Every Republican who represents New Jersey in the House voted for that law twice: Chris Smith, Tom Kean Jr. and Jeff Van Drew.
Who they are
These are not people in the country illegally. Stephen Cha, New Jersey's human services commissioner, stressed that everyone targeted is a legal resident.
"We're talking about victims of trafficking. We're talking about the husbands, wives, and children of lawfully residing veterans. We're talking about refugees who have fled persecution in their own country," Cha told the Monitor.
The Monitor reported that people who came to the U.S. as victims of domestic violence or for humanitarian reasons are also among those at risk. Children and pregnant women stay covered, along with several other groups of noncitizens.
Cha said the money saved by cutting them off is small: "It can't be more than a fraction, a tiny fraction of the overall spending, and each of these eligibility determinations is a person, is a family."
It doesn't stop there. The Monitor reported that some lawful immigrants on Medicare, including refugees, trafficking victims, domestic violence survivors and people with Temporary Protected Status, are being told their coverage ends in February, under the same law.
Oct. 1 is only the first cut
The Monitor called the immigrant cutoff one of the first visible effects of the law. The bigger hit is coming in January:
- About 540,000 people on New Jersey's Medicaid program will have to start proving that they work, go to school or volunteer at least 20 hours a week.
- State officials predict those rules could push more than 300,000 people off Medicaid.
- A new report from New Jersey Policy Perspective, a left-leaning think tank, projects that would leave $669 million a year in unpaid hospital bills.
- Other parts of the law could cut federal money for New Jersey hospitals by more than $3 billion a year in the years to come, state experts have said.
New Jersey stands to lose $3.6 billion in federal Medicaid funding every year under the law, Cathy Bennett, president and CEO of the New Jersey Hospital Association, wrote in a May commentary in the Monitor.
How they voted
The House voted on Trump's budget bill twice, and New Jersey's delegation split along party lines both times:
- May 22, 2025: The House passed its version 215 to 214. Chris Smith, Tom Kean Jr. and Jeff Van Drew voted yes. All nine New Jersey Democrats voted no. With a one-vote margin, any one of the three could have stopped it.
- July 3, 2025: The House passed the final version that became law. All three voted yes again. All nine Democrats voted no again.
The cuts land in their own districts. Democrats on Congress's Joint Economic Committee estimated that 18,636 people in Smith's district, 17,960 in Van Drew's and 7,296 in Kean's would lose Medicaid.
Van Drew promised he wouldn't
On April 14, 2025, Jeff Van Drew was one of a dozen House Republicans who signed a letter that said:
"We cannot and will not support a final reconciliation bill that includes any reduction in Medicaid coverage for vulnerable populations."
Refugees, victims of trafficking and survivors of domestic violence are about as vulnerable as a population gets. A month after signing that letter, Van Drew voted for the bill anyway, and he voted for the final version in July too.
He wasn't the only one. Rob Wittman in Virginia signed the same letter and then voted for the cuts.
The bottom line
Chris Smith, Tom Kean Jr. and Jeff Van Drew each voted twice for Trump's budget bill, the first time on a vote it passed by one. On Oct. 1, the law's limits on which noncitizens can get Medicaid could take coverage away from up to 25,000 people living legally in New Jersey, including refugees and trafficking victims, and state officials predict its work rules could push more than 300,000 people off Medicaid next year. Van Drew had signed a letter promising he would not vote for any Medicaid cut to "vulnerable populations."
Source
This post is based on reporting by Lilo H. Stainton for the New Jersey Monitor. Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Public Schools, via the New Jersey Monitor.
