With this year”™s election results barely a week old, state Democrats are looking to try again at a public option bill as a means of aiding those who, due to high insurance rates, may lose their coverage unless they go with expensive plans with high deductibles.
A version of the bill failed in 2019 after Cigna, headquartered in Bloomfield, threatened to leave Connecticut.
While new legislation has yet to be drafted, Comptroller Kevin Lembo yesterday said that he expected it to extend the state”™s employee health plan to individuals, small businesses and nonprofits.
The idea, Lembo said, is to make health insurance more accessible and affordable due to the size of Connecticut”™s state insurance base.
While State Senate President Pro-tem Martin Looney (D-New Haven) has expressed support for the measure, fellow Democrat Gov. Ned Lamont has indicated that, while generally in favor of a public option, he would need to know the potential costs to taxpayers.
Republican lawmakers, however, are against a public option.
“The Democrat proposal of a public option I fear will not accomplish our shared goal of reducing costs and increasing accessibility and will simultaneously threaten thousands of good paying jobs at a time when Connecticut is last in the country in personal income growth and new jobs,” said Senate Republican Leader-Elect Kevin Kelly (R-Stratford).
“Connecticut Republicans have bills already written that would reduce health insurance premiums by 20%, contain health care costs, reduce prescription drug costs, address health equity and allow people to keep their private insurance,” Kelly said. “For years, Republicans have put forward policies from reinsurance to health equity to health care cost benchmarking that would make health care both more accessible and more affordable. Democrats have been in charge and have not prioritized these bills.”
State Rep. and House Minority Leader-Elect Vincent Candelora (R-North Branford) said Democrats have been “campaigning for 20 years on the promise of doing something about it but have instead continued to implement more taxes, more consumer paid assessments, and more regulations that have driven premiums upward.
“Considering the latest projection of a $25 million deficiency in the state employee health account and the historical insolvency of the CT Partnership Plan, I”™m particularly concerned about another long-term broken promise,” he added.
