This is the second CTNewsJunkie policy forum to bring together policymakers and experts to explore potential policy benefits and risks.
Connecticut healthcare insurance premiums are expensive, pricing out too many individuals and businesses. This session, lawmakers are considering whether to create a public insurance option, accountable to government, to bring down costs. Important questions include who to cover, what to cover, how much to pay providers, how to fund it, and, most important, will it help make insurance affordable? Should it be built on Medicaid, the state employee plan, or should we create something different? What would happen to the current market, to employer-sponsored insurance, to AccessHealthCT, and to Medicaid?
Panelists included:
• State Rep. Sean Scanlon
• State Sen. Kevin Kelly
• Ellen Andrews of the CT Health Policy Project
• Former state Rep. and dental hygienist Vickie Nardello
• Lynne Ide, director of program and policy at the Universal Health Care Foundation