(UPDATED 11 p.m.) HARTFORD, CT – As the 2024 legislative session approached the finish line Wednesday, Senate Republicans released a statement saying they were “disappointed and frustrated” over the legislature’s inability to pass any legislation to lower health insurance costs in Connecticut.
“We live in the ‘Insurance Capital of the World,’ and the legislature’s insurance committee was unable to pass any bills to lower health insurance costs for Connecticut families this year,” the Republicans’ statement read.
They were referring to a clash earlier in the session between the co-chairs of the Insurance and Real Estate Committee – Rep. Kerry Wood of Rocky Hill and Sen. Jorge Cabrera of Hamden. The impasse was revealed when the committee failed to advance any bills by its March 21 JF deadline.
Wood contacted CTNewsJunkie late Wednesday following the publication of this story and said that the committee later managed to pack four of its bills into House Bill 5503 with a strike-all amendment. The package was forwarded passed by the House on May 3 and remained on the Senate calendar Wednesday evening.
Republicans said state residents will continue to bear the brunt of high health insurance rates and singled out one of the bills that didn’t make it out of committee – House Bill 5247 – which would have authorized employee health benefit consortiums to help reduce health insurance rates. It wasn’t among those included in the strike-all amended bill that was forwarded to the Senate.
“A prime example: Bipartisan legislation which would have allowed working and middle-class employees to get more affordable insurance by pooling their resources together didn’t advance,” the Republicans’ statement said. “The only losers in this scenario are the overburdened working and middle-class families across our state who are dealing with unaffordable health insurance costs. Republicans will continue working to relieve their burdens.”
Wood responded Wednesday saying the reason the legislature hasn’t been able to enact meaningful reform to make health insurance more affordable is because there is not enough support for those reforms outside of the committee.
Members of the committee – both Democrat and Republican – issued a statement on the status of the declining small group insurance market earlier in the week, saying they’ve been pushing for change.
“Until meaningful reform is passed, the small group market will continue to deteriorate and small
employers will continue to flee to the self-funded market,” the statement said. “If providing affordable health care to our small group market is important, then we would be governing differently. As passionate and dedicated members of the Insurance & Real Estate Committee, we welcome the chance to work with our colleagues on a better path next legislative session and welcome starting the discussion now.”
That statement was signed by Wood and Reps. Jill Barry, D-Glastonbury, Stephen Meskers, D-Greenwich, Keith Denning, D-Wilton, Cara Pavlock-Damato, R-Bristol, Tammy Nuccio, R-Tolland, and Tom Delnicki, R-South Windsor.
The dust-up Wednesday followed a news report of a decision by Cigna Healthcare and Oscar – a New York-based insurance technology company – to leave Connecticut’s small group health insurance market.
According to a report from the Hartford Business Journal, the companies informed their shareholders that the last date for employers to begin or renew policies in Connecticut will be Dec. 15, 2024, and the last date of member coverage will be Dec. 14, 2025.
The statement from committee members said that they were not surprised at the decision, and said there were many bills worked on in committee that could have potentially impacted and reformed the small group insurance market.
All of those bills, the statement said, failed to garner the necessary support.
