‘It's just devastating': Federal workers grapple with canceled health insurance, bungled benefits after Trump's layoff chaos

CNN

7 days ago

It was Easter Sunday, and an IRS agent in Atlanta found herself driving her son to the hospital because he was having a severe allergic reaction. But her son's well-being wasn't the only issue that day: She also didn't have health insurance.
Her coverage hadn't been restored yet, even though she had been reinstated to her job at the Internal Revenue Service, after getting fired in February as part of the Trump administration's mass federal layoffs.
'I went straight to the emergency room,' she told CNN. 'I knew I didn't have insurance, but I didn't want to take the chance. At that point, you're not thinking about health insurance.'
It took two months — and countless calls to customer service — for her health coverage to come back online. Meanwhile, she was hit with a $3,300 bill for the Easter visit to the ER.
She is one of several current and former federal employees who are struggling to get their workplace benefits, including health insurance and pension payments, amid President Donald Trump's chaotic efforts to reduce the size of the US government, according to documents reviewed by CNN and interviews with more than half a dozen affected workers.
It's not clear how widespread these issues are. But federal workers who spoke to CNN, who have worked at three separate agencies, described a bureaucratic nightmare as they navigate depleted human resources offices and try to minimize the disruptions to their daily lives. CNN has reported on the many other ways Trump's efforts to slash and revamp government agencies have prompted widespread confusion and uncertainty among federal workers.
The hardest-hit group appears to be the thousands of 'probationary' workers who were fired en masse in February, only to be reinstated weeks later by federal judges. These employees were glad to be reinstated, but the whiplash put their benefits in limbo.
'There are no words to describe how difficult this has been,' said one Department of Education employee, whose family lost health insurance coverage for weeks. 'There's been no communication. No kindness. No compassion. It's just devastating.'
The White House didn't comment for this story and referred CNN's questions to some of the agencies involved.
The Trump administration and its Department of Government Efficiency are shrinking the size of the federal workforce by shuttering agencies, firing recently hired workers, incentivizing early retirement, offering buyouts and initiating 'reduction in force' layoffs.
Along the way, as CNN has previously reported, the at-times indiscriminate cuts have left a trail of anxiety, fear and suffering. Many advocates for these fired federal employees have noted that a chief architect of these cuts, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, said in 2023 that 'we want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected.'
The current Department of Education employee — who was fired with the probationary workers and then reinstated by a court order — said she still hasn't been told why she couldn't get her health care back faster.
The employee, a mother of three, spoke to CNN anonymously. While her health insurance was cut off, her husband, who is recovering from cancer, couldn't access appointments to maintain his health, which is critical for someone whose cancer is in remission, she said.
During that period, her husband wasn't able to have his regular port flushing appointment to check the device in his chest that delivers chemotherapy treatments. His port then got blocked, necessitating further medical attention. They also weren't able to schedule his regular CT scans to determine whether his cancer had returned.
She managed to get her insurance reinstated for her family through the Department of Education. But those weeks without any health insurance were riddled with anxiety and stress. And the future is unclear, especially as Trump tries to shut down the agency.
'There is now so much unknown for our future. It is hard to feel secure. I feel like it could be ripped away at any time,' she said regarding her current health insurance coverage.
She estimates that she spent multiple hours per day during their benefits outage making calls, filling out paperwork and reaching out to local representatives to seek answers.
A Department of Education spokeswoman, Madi Biedermann, said the department has 'been in regular communication with' employees affected by the cuts, including weekly in-person and virtual workshops where they can get answers from HR and information technology specialists.
'While we acknowledge transitions are difficult, employees have been fully informed and supported during the changes at the Department,' Biedermann said in an email.
CNN spoke to four current and former Internal Revenue Service probationary employees who also struggled to get their health insurance plans reactivated after being reinstated.
An IRS employee in Indiana said she lost insurance for about three months, forcing her to delay crucial medical tests for her wife to determine whether lesions on her pancreas were potentially cancerous. She showed CNN call logs and emails indicating that she spent more than 25 hours working the phones, trying to get her health coverage back online.
'The insurance company said I didn't have insurance. The IRS said I did. I couldn't get the sides to get together and talk on one another,' she said. 'It was absolute utter chaos. I was on the phone every single day for two weeks. I even broke down in tears on the phone.'
An IRS revenue officer from Massachusetts described not realizing that his insurance had been canceled weeks earlier, until an unpaid bill arrived after his annual physical.
'If I get into an accident, that's going to bankrupt me,' he told CNN.
Other IRS employees said even short lapses in coverage left them fearing what's next.
'It felt like I had been forgotten about,' said IRS employee Osama Shahbaz, who had a brief lapse in coverage. 'It felt a lot longer than two or three weeks. I was concerned, if something bad were to happen, I might not be covered and would have to pay a huge bill.'
A spokesperson for Aetna told CNN that fewer than a dozen federal workers insured through the health insurance giant have had issues getting their coverage restored in a timely manner.
BlueCross BlueShield's Federal Employee Program resumes the health coverage of a federal worker the same day as it receives a notification of reinstatement from the Office of Personnel Management, said a spokesperson for the BlueCross BlueShield Association.
There are also indications that the mass firings have created a cycle of sorts where key HR employees — who would typically help with processing workers compensation claims or addressing questions about pensions — have themselves been fired, creating a vacuum for getting help.
Sheria Smith, a Department of Education employee who is the president of her federal workers union chapter in Dallas, was injured at the office in February. She tripped over loose cords on the floor and gashed her foot open, necessitating a podiatrist visit.
She filed a workers' compensation complaint on the day of the injury, but she said it still hasn't been resolved. She was then terminated in March as part of the Trump administration's sweeping 'reduction in force' layoffs at the Department of Education — but continued to push for her workers' comp to pay for her doctor's visits.
In May, months after her injury, a staffer from the Department of Education's benefits office responded to one of her inquiries and said her request was being reviewed by a specific employee. Smith then informed them that this employee had been terminated.
The benefits staffer wrote back, 'Thank you for that information. Please let us know who to reassign it to,' according to messages obtained by CNN. Smith then responded, 'I do not know. I've also been placed on administrative leave and do not know who remains.'
John Reid III, a retired US Postal Service worker who lives in Locust Grove, Georgia, told CNN that he did not get his monthly federal pension benefit after the Social Security Administration erroneously declared him dead in April.
Although Social Security has since corrected the record, Reid has yet to receive his May pension payment, which accounts for a sizable amount of his monthly income.
He has called the Office of Personnel Management eight times to try to resolve the issue, including four times last week. But he was told that most of the staffers who would normally assist callers in his situation were gone due to buyouts and layoffs at the agency.
The staffing shortage has left him wondering when he'll get the funds, which he and his wife depend on. He said he also reached out to one of his senators to try to get help.
'Retirees are being left hung out to dry,' said Reid, 73, who worked for USPS for more than three decades. 'I am so disappointed with our government.'
In response to CNN's inquiries about the situation, OPM spokesperson McLaurine Pinover said on the morning of May 19 that the agency was trying to resolve the problem.
'OPM's Retirement Services office is actively working to address Mr. Reid's issue,' Pinover said in an email. 'There have been no changes to the constituent services process.'
Later that day, Pinover told CNN that Reid's situation has been addressed, but the payment could take up to seven days. An OPM representative told Reid on Friday that it could be another week before he receives his May payment, but that his June payment should arrive on time on the first of the month, he said.
'At this juncture, I'll believe it when I receive it,' he said.