
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
Support authentic, locally owned and operated public service journalism!
• Former state Rep. and dental hygienist Vickie Nardello
• Lynne Ide, director of program and policy at the Universal Health Care Foundation
More Health Care News & Analysis

6 Common Barriers Men Face When Seeking Mental Health Support
The outward effects of mental illness can often be dismissed as a sign of weakness or personal failure. For men, this type of social stereotyping can be especially hard to escape — being told to “man up” is a common refrain that can be reductive and stigmatizing.
Keep readingMedical Examining Board Fines Doctor $10,000
The state Medical Examining Board on Tuesday fined an Oxford doctor $10,000 for fraudulently using another doctor’s name and Drug Enforcement Agency registration number to prescribe controlled substances to a family member.
Keep reading
Clinical Trials With Immunotherapy Drugs Are Source Of Hope And Challenges In Treating Aggressive Breast Cancer
Joshalyn Mills of Branford and Nancy Witz of Kensington had the best possible results after being treated in clinical trials with immunotherapy drugs for aggressive breast cancer: Their tumors were eliminated. But while there are dramatic successes with immunotherapy drugs, there are also many failures, and researchers are trying to find out why in hopes…
Keep reading
Coalition of Health Insurers Questions Viability of Connecticut Partnership Plan
Members of Connecticut’s Health Care Future, a coalition of health insurers, hospitals, and businesses, are questioning whether Connecticut lawmakers have done enough this year to protect teachers and municipal employees from increases in health insurance premiums. “Despite repeated bailouts from taxpayers, the Connecticut Partnership Plan continues to be a fiscal Titanic that demonstrates why government-controlled health…
Keep reading
AG’s Tackle Mental Health Parity
Attorneys General in Connecticut and Rhode Island threw their support Monday behind a coalition of mental health advocacy groups asking a federal appeals court to revisit a recent ruling giving insurance companies more flexibility to deny mental health claims.
Keep reading
Budget Green Lights Psychedelic Therapies
Buried in the budget Gov. Ned Lamont signed this week is a provision that would create a pilot program to allow Connecticut to be the first-in-the-nation to study the impact of psychedelic drugs like psilocybin and MDMA on patients with depression and PTSD. The budget now creates a pilot program within the Department of Mental…
Keep reading