Poor Connecticut households this winter will face about $784 million in energy bills above what they can afford, according to a new study released Wednesday by Operation Fuel.
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
Waterbury says regulators endanger hospital deals
Waterbury’s mayor and the state’s hospital industry say that Connecticut regulators are jeopardizing plans by a national for-profit hospital chain to buy the city’s two struggling hospitals and others in Bristol, Manchester and Vernon.
Posted inHealth
New report: Operating profits drop at state hospitals
Connecticut’s acute-care hospitals saw gains from their operations tumble 35 percent in the last fiscal year, with seven of 29 hospitals reporting operating losses, according to a new state report.
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DSS said to have continued thousands on Medicaid without ensuring they were still eligible
The state Department of Social Services continued providing Medicaid coverage to thousands of people for more than a year without checking whether they remained eligible, as is federally required, according to a contractor who recently left the department.
Posted inHealth, Money
Tug-of-war over limited state funds for CT’s developmentally disabled
Armed with a court expert’s new recommendation to close Southbury Training School, several advocacy groups argued Connecticut unfairly spends too much of its limited resources on a small class of institutionalized disabled while ignoring thousands awaiting community-based care.
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Access Health CT adds some plans excluding abortion coverage
Access Health CT, the state’s health insurance exchange, has added policies that exclude abortion coverage to those available from the state’s insurance marketplace. Their inclusion ended a lawsuit against Access Health brought by a couple who strongly oppose abortion.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Natasha Pierre named CT’s new victim advocate
The policy director for Connecticut’s Permanent Commission on the Status of Women, Natasha Pierre of Windsor, will become the state’s new Victim Advocate, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced Monday.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
Lembo confirms CT budget is $45M in the red after governor’s cuts
After applying Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s recent emergency budget cuts, state finances are on pace to finish nearly $45 million in deficit, Comptroller Kevin P. Lembo reported Monday.
Posted inEducation, Health, Money, Politics
CT spending cap threatens to squeeze education, other priorities in next budget
Though taxes and spending cuts dominate the debate over Connecticut’s budget deficit, the constitutional cap on spending is waiting in the wings for its turn. The 23-year-old cap has effectively begun to squeeze resources for education, transportation and other priorities and could also be a political thorn in the side of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and his fellow Democrats in the General Assembly’s majority.
Posted inHealth
Food stamp backlog could cost Connecticut federal money
Connecticut could lose up to $3.7 million in expected federal funding because of continued problems in handling food stamp cases.
Posted inHealth
For Obamacare clients and some uninsured, tax time may get complicated
This is the first year Americans are required to have health insurance. But how will they show they’ve complied with Obamacare’s individual insurance mandate?
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Access Health says it has 11,604 new Medicaid and insurance customers
In the first week of open enrollment, 2,659 new customers signed up for private insurance plans and 8,945 people signed up for Medicaid through Access Health CT, the state’s health insurance exchange.
Posted inEducation, Health, Money, Politics
Legislators delve into deficit, including its sudden appearance
The legislature’s two budget-writing panels grilled Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s fiscal staff Friday about the new state deficit – and the administration’s latest cuts to reduce it. Republican legislators focused, as expected, on why the $99 million shortfall Malloy reported last week wasn’t acknowledged before Election Day.
Posted inEducation, Health, Money
Malloy’s emergency budget cuts fall on social services, education
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy ordered nearly $48 million in emergency budget cuts Thursday, imposing the deepest cuts on social services, education and culture and tourism promotion. The cuts, which do not require legislative approval, whittle the nearly $100 million deficit Malloy projected last week down to $45 million.
Posted inHealth
Insurance commissioner Leonardi stepping down
Insurance Commissioner Thomas B. Leonardi will step down next month to join an investment banking advisory firm, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s office announced Wednesday.