Senate Democrats have announced two bills aimed at reducing the cost of both health care and health insurance in Connecticut.
Lawmakers on both sides acknowledged that past efforts have not provided the relief voters want, but promised to make it a priority this session.
“What we heard in the election, what we heard from our constituents is we have to focus on affordability in this state,” said Sen. Matt Lesser (D-Middletown). Said.
Lesser, co-chair of the Human Services Committee, and other Democrats provided some details, including cracking down on pharmaceutical benefit managers and trying to import prescription drugs from Canada, but the proposal remains a work in progress. I said that.
Sen. Tong Hwang (R-Fairfield), co-chair of the Insurance and Real Estate Committee, agreed that the goal is to protect the proposal everywhere.
“We're going to have these public hearings. We're going to hear from all the stakeholders. We're going to know the best way forward,” Fan said.
Democrats said they want to provide a pharmaceutical benefit manager, or PBMS, with a fiduciary responsibility to patients.
This allows patients or attorneys general to go after PBMs that don't.
PBMs are middlemen who negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs, but critics say they pass on more profits instead to patients.
A Federal Trade Commission report found earlier this month that PBMS pocketed $8.7 billion in savings that will not be trickled down to customers between 2017 and 2022.
Democrats also want to make it harder for health insurance companies to deny prior authorization requests by requiring them to prove why they denied a doctor's request for care.
Fann said Republicans are open to all ideas, but would like to push a bill that would allow small businesses to pool together to buy insurance.
Additionally, they want to force the healthcare industry to provide more data to the Office of Health Strategy for price benchmarking.
Connecticut is one of a handful of states trying to set targets on price growth, but it has struggled to get an information regulator that lawmakers believe they need.
Health insurance companies say the move could raise costs while only affecting a small number of insurance plans.
“With respect to proposals aimed at insurance, Connecticut regulators have expanded less than 25% of the population to be commercially insured, and they are targeting highly price-sensitive individuals and small-scale employment.” It is important to remember that the Lord is the Lord,” director Susan Halpin said in a statement.
“That’s something we all have to be aware of as we consider additional legislation,” Halpin continued.
But the Connecticut Business and Industry Association praised lawmakers for considering ways to cut costs.
“Connecticut businesses, in our survey, are the No. 1 issue they want their legislators to address so they can lower costs for their employees,” said CBIA Vice President of Policy.
The Insurance and Real Estate Commission failed to approve a single bill ahead of the last session's deadline.
Sen. Jorge Cabrera (D-Hampden), co-chair of the committee, said it won't happen again this year.
“Each time, we're starting over and trying to get the job done, so there's a lot of important issues that have to be addressed,” Cabrera said of the new sessions.
But while lawmakers are concerned about federal funding, President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress are considering cuts to Medicaid and other social services.
Connecticut lawmakers have expressed a desire to increase reimbursement rates.
Some Democrats also want to raise the age at which undocumented immigrants can receive Medicaid. The state currently provides coverage to people 15 and under.
At least for now, he said the threat of funding won't stop those conversations.
“We have to look at what we can do to protect residents here and expand coverage here,” Lesser said.
