ConnectiCare Benefits Inc. was the most popular carrier among plans sold on the state’s health insurance exchange this year, capturing 42.3 percent of the 110,095 people who signed up for insurance through Access Health CT. Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the state’s largest insurer and last year’s exchange leader, received 39.8 percent of signups.
Arielle Levin Becker
Arielle Levin Becker covered health care for The Connecticut Mirror. She previously worked for The Hartford Courant, most recently as its health reporter, and has also covered small towns, courts and education in Connecticut and New Jersey. She was a finalist in 2009 for the prestigious Livingston Award for Young Journalists, a recipient of a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship and the third-place winner in 2013 for an in-depth piece on caregivers from the National Association of Health Journalists. She is a 2004 graduate of Yale University.
Posted inHealth, Money
Medicaid rules prompt a $45 million state-federal disagreement
A $45 million hole in this year’s budget is the result of a disagreement between state and federal officials over how much the federal government should reimburse Connecticut for Medicaid spending for clients who became eligible under Obamacare.
Posted inHealth, Politics
With protest, legislators move forward governor’s human services budget cuts
The legislature’s human services committee voted to move forward Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposed social services budget, but not before disowning the cuts within it and debating whether the way they handled the measure was a sufficient protest.
Posted inHealth
Acting Commissioner Dowling leaving insurance department
Dowling previously served as deputy commissioner and ran the agency’s day-to-day operations while the previous commissioner, Thomas B. Leonardi, traveled extensively. She was considered a possible replacement for Leonardi.
Posted inHealth
Former Cigna lobbyist to lead insurance department
Katie Wade spent 21 years at Cigna, working primarily in government affairs positions. She will now lead a state agency that regulates what is by some measures the largest insurance industry in the nation.
Posted inHealth
The end-of-life debate
Should doctors be allowed to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill patients who request it? As Connecticut lawmakers consider the issue, scores of people weighed in Wednesday, with testimony that was often emotional. Here’s a recap of our live coverage.
Posted inHealth
Malloy still conflicted on right-to-die proposal
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Tuesday that he remains conflicted about a controversial proposal to allow physicians to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill, mentally competent patients who request it.
Posted inHealth, Politics
On polarizing end-of-life issue, what changes minds?
Once again, lawmakers are considering the question of whether to allow doctors to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill, mentally competent people who request it. It’s a polarizing issue, one that many people view through profound, often painful personal experiences. So how do you change people’s minds?
Posted inHealth
In controversial health care bills, some agreement on transparency
Patients are increasingly being asked to take on a larger share of their health care costs. But for even the most avid bargain-hunters, comparison shopping for medical care can be a challenge, if not impossible. Can legislation change that?
Posted inHealth
Enrollment rose, but age distribution stayed the same in CT exchange
Although enrollment in private health plans sold through Connecticut’s health insurance exchange rose by 37 percent this year, the age distribution of customers was virtually unchanged, according to data released by the federal government Tuesday.
Posted inHealth
Legislators grappling with fast-changing health care landscape
The health care landscape is changing, and legislators are trying to figure out how to respond to an industry that is at once a top employer in many communities and a big driver of health care costs that are straining state, local and business budgets. Hospital officials say some of the proposals so far would take the state backwards.
Posted inHealth
Providers, advocates call Malloy Medicaid cuts short-sighted
Critics say Malloy’s proposal to cut Medicaid is financially short-sighted and threatens to undermine recent progress in a program that has added thousands of new members as part of the federal health law, expanded the network of providers willing to treat them, and reduced its per-client costs.
Posted inHealth
Access Health CT: 110,095 picked Obamacare insurance plans
The 110,095 private insurance customers includes 68,231 people who also had coverage through Access Health in 2014 and 41,864 new customers. Seventy-seven percent qualify for federal tax credits to discount their insurance premiums, while the rest must pay the full price for their coverage.
Posted inHealth
Should CT give terminally ill patients the ‘right to try’ unapproved treatments?
Since being diagnosed with ALS, Debra Gove has participated in eight studies, hoping to give researchers insights that could lead to a cure. She’s participating in a clinical trial, but knows there’s a chance she got a placebo, and that she’ll be dead before the treatment can be widely available. Should state lawmakers make it easier for patients like her to try unapproved treatments?
Posted inHealth
Mental health Commissioner Rehmer leaving for Hartford HealthCare post
Connecticut mental health and addiction services Commissioner Patricia Rehmer is leaving the agency to become a senior vice president at Hartford HealthCare, where she will lead the organization’s Behavioral Health Network.