Danielle Waterfield was fired, rehired and fired again from her job at CHIPS for America, part of the Department of Commerce. Now, she fears her health insurance was cut off weeks ago, even though she was told otherwise.
Andrea Hsu/NPR
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Andrea Hsu/NPR
Danielle Waterfield was already dealing with the shock and disappointment of being fired from a job she loved.
An attorney recruited to the Commerce Department’s CHIPS for America program in 2023, Waterfield had felt she was part of something monumental, something that would move the country forward: rebuilding America’s semiconductor industry.
Instead, nearly two months after being fired in the Trump administration’s purge of newer – or “probationary” – federal employees, Waterfield is enmeshed in a bureaucratic mess over her health care coverage. It’s a mess that’s left her fearing her entire family may now be uninsured.
“I’ve been in the private sector. I’ve gone through layoffs,” says Waterfield. “I’ve never before experienced this, and never for the life of me thought the federal government would treat people like that.”
Good health benefits a perk of federal jobs
Solid benefits have long been seen as a perk of federal jobs, a tradeoff for lower pay. As a result, many federal employees carry their families on their health insurance plans.
But now, the administration’s “break first, ask questions later” approach to remaking the federal bureaucracy has brought a level of chaos to the government that workers like Waterfield have never seen anywhere, even in the private sector.
President Trump delivers remarks on reciprocal tariffs as Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick holds a chart during an event in the Rose Garden entitled “Make America Wealthy Again” at the White House in Washington, D.C., on April 2, 2025.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
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Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
Firings have been carried out with such haste that human resource departments have struggled to answer a basic question from those affected: Do we have health insurance?
Fired employees desperate for information have instead been given responses that are confusing, conflicting and at times, flat out wrong. Moreover, much of that information has come too late. Some fear they’ve racked up medical bills that will not be reimbursed, while others are avoiding medical care until they can get new insurance.
The Commerce Department did not respond to NPR’s multiple requests for comment about the fired employees’ health care coverage. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, which handles many human resource functions for the federal government, only provided general information about federal benefits but did not address specific questions.
How Waterfield and possibly hundreds of others recently fired from the Commerce Department ended up in this situation takes some explaining. The information vacuum that employees have encountered amid a legal battle over their firings has certainly compounded the chaos.
March 3: The original termination
In court filings, the Commerce Department confirmed it fired close to 800 probationary employees between President Trump’s inauguration on January 20 and March 3.
Waterfield’s termination letter came March 3. Immediately, she realized she needed to figure out health insurance for her family. Her husband and two children were on her health plan.
The Commerce Department sent her a memo explaining the federal government’s benefits policy for separated employees: The government would provide a 31-day extension of her health insurance following her last pay period. She would owe no additional premiums. After that, she would have 60 days to opt into federal employees’ equivalent of COBRA to continue her health benefits.
Instead, Waterfield started looking into how to switch the family to the plan her husband’s employer offered, an option she was grateful to have. But she couldn’t do that until she could prove a “qualifying life event” – in her case, a loss of health insurance due to being fired.
And then, ten days later came a new twist.
March 17: Reinstatement
Ten days after Waterfield was terminated, a federal judge in Maryland found that her firing and that of more than 24,000 other probationary employees targeted by the Trump administration were probably illegal. He ordered them temporarily reinstated, restoring the status quo.
To comply with the judge’s order, the Commerce Department reinstated nearly all of the fired employees on March 17, putting them on paid administrative leave.
Waterfield assumed a return to the status quo would mean her benefits would be restored. She was still paying her insurance premium through her paycheck, but she wanted confirmation. She asked Human Resources but heard nothing back. She sent her reinstatement letter to Blue Cross Blue Shield and felt reassured when she got a response informing her she’d have no break in coverage.
“Within a week, I had new insurance cards sent to my entire family,” she says.
Knowing that the Trump administration was appealing the judge’s order and that she could be fired again at any moment, she took swift action to ensure her family’s wellbeing. She moved up a bunch of medical appointments, including a routine checkup for her teenager, a diabetes appointment for her husband, and her own physical therapy to address a spinal issue.
“Doctors have been very, very supportive,” she says. “They rescheduled things and got us in.”
April 10: Terminated again
Then on April 10 came the notification Waterfield had dreaded. A day earlier, a panel of judges at the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals had found fault with the lower court’s reinstatement order, and voided it.
Now, the Commerce Department was firing her once again, retroactive to her original termination date. This time, there was no accompanying memo about benefits. Again, questions to Human Resources went unanswered.
Waterfield logged on to her insurance portal and saw no change in status. Her paystubs still showed that her health care premium was being taken out of her paycheck. She kept the family’s doctors appointments until this week, when her group chats lit up with frantic text messages.
A couple of her colleagues had just heard from their insurers that their coverage did indeed end on April 8, consistent with what the Commerce Department had told them before the whole legal saga began. As a result, claims for expenses incurred after that would not be paid.
Protesters gather on the National Mall for the “Hands-Off” protest against the Trump administration on Saturday, April 5, 2025.
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“I’m afraid to call my insurance company”
NPR has since learned that fired employees at another agency within the Commerce Department, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, received a memo from the government on April 17 confirming the April 8 insurance cutoff – a full week after they were re-fired. That’s despite the fact that some of those employees had received verbal and even written assurances from supervisors that their coverage would continue uninterrupted. Now they don’t know what to believe.
“I’m afraid to call my insurance company,” says Waterfield.
Her colleague Keri Murphy, an administrative officer at CHIPS for America, is even more terrified. She had surgery on her foot on April 17. That morning, she called Blue Cross Blue Shield to make sure she had coverage and was told she did.
“Blue Cross was showing me as active,” she says. “I paid my specialist co-pay of $50.”
That confirmation, along with the fact that her latest paystub showed she had paid her health care premium, led Murphy to assume she’d have health coverage for another 31 days past her April 10 re-termination date.
Now, she’s trying to figure out what she’ll do if she’s saddled with the entire cost of her foot surgery. Her only choice may be to opt into continuing coverage for one month. But she estimates that could cost her around $2800, money her family doesn’t have given she just lost her job.
She’s now worried she may have to cancel her follow-up appointment next week, when her doctor is supposed to remove the bandages and have a look.
“This has been such a life-changing, devastating series of events that I don’t know how much more bad news I can take,” she says.
Tammy Flanagan, who formerly worked in human resources at the FBI and now runs her own consultancy, says these federal workers have done exactly what she would have advised them to do in this situation – call their insurers.
Beyond that, she’s not sure what to tell them.
“Where have government employees ever been fired and then rehired and fired again? It’s unknown territory,” she says.
Hoping for no emergencies
Jennifer Raulin (left) and a colleague work in the field on a government-supported project related to marsh restoration. Raulin had just started a federal job in coastal management with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in January before being fired in February.
C. Weilminster
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C. Weilminster
Jennifer Raulin, who had just started a job at NOAA in January before being fired in February, rehired in March and fired again in April, had not wanted to complain publicly about the ordeal she’s been through – until now.
“We have been kind of living in purgatory for the past couple of months, but this whole health care thing has really taken a darker turn,” she says. “This to me crossed a line… because my kids are now involved.”
One of her children just turned 11, but she isn’t taking him in for his annual checkup and the shots that he’s due to get, including the HPV, Tdap and meningitis vaccines, until she has health care coverage again.
In the meantime, she’s also hoping for no emergencies.
“Both of my children play baseball, and so now every time they have a game, I hold my breath and hope that they don’t get hurt,” she says.
She, too, feels fortunate her husband’s employer offers a family insurance plan. But they haven’t been able to make the switch because the government hasn’t sent Raulin her termination paperwork proving a qualifying life event.
Until then, if someone in the family ends up in the emergency room, she’ll have to opt into continuing coverage, despite it being cost-prohibitive, she says. NOAA employees have been told they have until June 7 to do so.
Not optimistic about another reinstatement
Although multiple legal challenges to the probationary employees’ firings are still playing out in court, Raulin and others are not optimistic this health care situation will be sorted out by another ruling – or that they’ll get their jobs back.
“Trying to follow all these cases and the appeal process is almost like a full-time job, on top of trying to find another full-time job,” says Raulin.
While Waterfield looks for new employment, she is doing what she can to help other federal workers navigate the murky situation, including signing up with her local bar association to provide pro-bono legal counsel – and support.
“Even if it’s just a sense of giving an open ear, letting them know they’re not alone, that their feeling that this isn’t fair is shared by others,” says Waterfield. “Letting people know that I feel it with them.”
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