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.
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.
Dive Deeper: Abortion · Access Health CT · COVID-19 · CT Rural Hospitals
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.
Posted inHealth
$4 million grant to aid New Haven’s youngest
Over the next five years, the Connecticut Department of Children and Family Services, the Department of Public Health and the City of New Haven will receive $4 million in federal funds to prove that providing integrated physical and mental health services improves outcomes for the city’s youngest children.
Posted inHealth
A guide to health care in Connecticut
Navigating health care can be confusing, but we’re here to help. Now that we’re in the signup period for Obamacare, we have everything from calculators FAQs to help you figure out how much insurance will cost, and stories to tell you what’s changing from 2014 to 2015.
Posted inHealth
Four things to watch during Obamacare open enrollment
The second enrollment period for private health insurance under Obamacare begins Saturday and runs through Feb. 15. With that will come a barrage of ads aimed at getting people to sign up, thousands of customers facing decisions about their plans, and lots of eyes on how well things are going at a key time for one of the country’s most controversial laws. Here are four things to watch.
Posted inHealth
Obamacare: Who’s still uninsured in CT, and why?
Connecticut had one of the lowest uninsured rates in the country before Obamacare, and has been heralded as one of the most successful states in rolling out the health law. But even here, on the eve of the second sign-up period for private insurance under the health law, it’s not hard to find people without health insurance. So who are they, and what are their chances of getting insured anytime soon?
Posted inHealth
Obamacare case headed to U.S. Supreme Court doesn’t directly affect CT
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take up a key case related to Obamacare, but it has little direct impact on Connecticut.
Posted inHealth
30,000 could lose coverage or subsidies as exchange addresses income, immigration discrepancies
As many as 30,000 customers of the state’s health insurance exchange could lose their coverage or see a drop in the subsidies used to discount their premiums next month because they did not submit information needed to verify their eligibility.
Posted inHealth
From home quarantine, Yale student decries ‘overreaction’
Ryan Boyko sat by an open rear window late Thursday afternoon, inches from the East Rock backyard he may not enter, continuing by laptop to try to help Liberia contain the Ebola epidemic. Boyko, a Yale public-health doctoral student, would rather have left the house.
Posted inHealth
CT to handle quarantine decisions on case-by-case basis
Connecticut officials will decide on a case-by-case basis how to handle each traveler from Ebola-stricken countries, according to a statement released by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s office Monday. The stated policy appears less stringent than one the administration issued earlier this month calling for quarantining all asymptomatic travelers from those countries. But a spokesman said it reflects what’s been implemented.
Posted inHealth
Obamacare enrollment, year 2: What you need to know
The second sign-up period for insurance under the federal health law known as Obamacare begins next month. There are some key changes from last year, including a shorter shopping season, new plan options and a higher penalty for those who don’t have coverage in 2015. Here are the details.
Posted inHealth
Connecticut’s Obamacare plan options for 2015
Here’s a look at the standard plans sold through Access Health CT, the state’s health insurance exchange, for 2015.
Posted inHealth
Connecticut quarantines nine who are symptom-free under Ebola protocols
The Connecticut Department of Public Health said late Wednesday that it has placed under quarantine nine individuals who have traveled to West Africa but are symptom-free — the first use of the state’s tough Ebola protocols.
Posted inHealth
Public gets first look at health industry payments to doctors
WASHINGTON – Pharmaceutical companies and medical-device manufacturers paid more than $6 million to about 5,400 Connecticut doctors for various services during the last five months of 2013, a Connecticut Mirror examination of a newly released federal database shows. Though only a five-month snapshot, the new data provides the public with the ability to examine actual payments to their own doctors for the first time. We’ve made searching the Connecticut data easy.