Democratic legislators are using a two-stage, 50-cent increase in cigarette taxes to lessen — but not to eliminate — controversial income and data processing tax hikes, with the goal of passing a $40.3 billion, two-year state budget plan on Tuesday. The state’s chief business lobby quickly decried the changes as woefully inadequate.
Health
Stories about health care access and affordability in CT, as well as abortion, COVID, health equity and disparities, health systems and social determinants of health.
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Posted inHealth, Politics
Cheat sheet: What’s in the big health care bill
The state Senate passed a wide-ranging health care bill Monday that could have significant implications for hospitals, insurance companies, doctors and patients. Here’s what it would do.
Posted inHealth
Former CT insurance official Dowling to lead Illinois agency
Anne Melissa Dowling, a former top official in Connecticut’s insurance department, has been picked to lead the Illinois Department of Insurance.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Revised health care bill passes House, despite hospital opposition
Many individual provisions of the 87-page proposal could have been controversial bills on their own; together, they represent a set of changes that could have significant ripples through major industries undergoing rapid change.
Posted inEducation, Health, Money, Politics
White smoke on budget deal might require cigarette tax hike
Still needing a relatively small amount of revenue — tens of millions of dollars in a two-year budget of more than $40 billion — negotiators have struggled to find the right sources that will yield dollars without costing votes. A possible source under consideration is an old favorite, taxes on cigarettes.
Posted inHealth, Politics
House nearing deal on massive health care bill
Legislators are closing in on a final version of a massive, heavily lobbied health care proposal that could have significant implications for hospitals, doctors, insurers and patients.
Posted inHealth
Access Health increases fee on insurers
The board of Connecticut’s health insurance exchange approved a 22 percent hike in the fee it charges insurers to help fund its operations, a cost that’s likely to be passed on to insurance customers.
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Health
Affordable energy bill advances; telehealth bill goes to governor
Bills designed to drive down Connecticut’s high electricity costs and to establish standards for telehealth both advanced during state legislative proceedings Wednesday.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Mental health experts question police PTSD compromise
A compromise proposal that passed the Senate last week would extend workers’ compensation benefits to police who experience mental health problems stemming from responding to a death caused by a person, but not those related to handling fatal car accidents. Mental health professionals say the distinction might make sense politically, but it makes little sense medically.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Senate votes to expand workers’ comp for cops, firefighters
The Senate voted 25 to 11 early Friday for legislation expanding workers’ compensation for police and firefighters, overcoming complaints that the new unfunded mandates would be financially ruinous to cities and towns in Connecticut.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Senate passes major health care bill, but fate in House uncertain
The state Senate Thursday night passed an expansive bill aimed at influencing the state’s fast-changing health care landscape, a measure driven largely by the Senate leaders’ concerns about large hospital systems gaining too much market power and driving up costs. But a key House Democrat said that’s unlikely to be the final version.
Posted inHealth
Vermont officials eyeing CT’s health insurance exchange
Updated 2:55 p.m. Vermont officials are considering turning to Connecticut’s health insurance exchange as an alternative to that state’s struggling Obamacare marketplace.
Posted inHealth, Politics
The doctor is online, and lawmakers are prescribing some rules
Joanna Leach didn’t have time to get to the doctor to check out her lingering cold. So she flipped open her laptop, signed up for a service and was soon face-to-face — or screen-to-screen — with a doctor in another state, who diagnosed her and prescribed medication. That form of health care — known as telemedicine — is expected to become more common, and an attempt by legislators to regulate it has brought forward a debate on the shape it should take.
Posted inHealth
VIDEO: The public and personal sides of at-home caregiving
Along with sponsor AARP, The Connecticut Mirror hosts its third Google Hangout of the 2015 Connecticut legislative session to discuss caregiving. Joining host and Mirror Health Care Reporter Arielle Levin Becker are Rep. Catherine Abercrombie (D), Rep. Mitch Bolinsky (R), and Claudio W. Gualtieri, associate state director, advocacy, AARP Connecticut.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Can the state build a better system to get your medical records to your doctors?
Chances are, if you’re a patient in Connecticut, your doctor enters your medical information into a laptop or tablet and sends your prescriptions to the pharmacy electronically. But if you end up in an emergency room, there’s a good chance your records will have to get there the old-fashioned way: by fax. Legislators are trying to change that, but not everyone agrees on what the state needs.
