Issue Position: Access to Quality Healthcare

Issue Position

As a business owner, I knew that one of the most important things for the success of my business was providing the conditions for people to thrive and grow. Health insurance was a large expense for my business, but it was vital because it helped attract good employees and kept them and their families healthy -- and also because it was simply the right thing to do. That's what we need to do in Connecticut -- we need to provide the best possible conditions for people to succeed by increasing access to affordable, quality healthcare.

For Connecticut, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has meant increased access to healthcare, lower cost and better-quality care for residents. The ACA has expanded health access to hundreds of thousands in Connecticut, including to more than 110,000 residents through Access Health CT. The ACA has been directly responsible for reducing Connecticut's uninsured rate by 45 percent statewide, with even greater progress in some communities. Without the ACA, there would be nearly twice as many uninsured residents under the age of 65 in New Haven and Waterbury. Similarly, but for the ACA, Bridgeport would have 50 percent more uninsured nonelderly residents while Hartford's uninsured rate would be 60 percent higher.

Despite this progress, President Trump continues to seek to dismantle the ACA. Here in Connecticut, we must resist these attacks and meet the demand for quality and affordable healthcare by building on the progress of the ACA.

I am proud of the work Connecticut has done to protect access to healthcare. This year, we enacted a law to protect the ACA's 10 essential health benefits and access to birth control with no out-of-pocket costs. Protecting essential health benefits requires insurers to cover maternity and newborn care; mental health and substance use disorder services, including behavioral health treatment; prescription drugs; and preventive and wellness services and chronic disease management.

I am also proud that the General Assembly took steps to help lower healthcare costs for patients by requiring health insurance policies to cover 12-month supplies of contraceptives and holding the pharmaceutical industry and insurance carriers accountable for escalating prescription drug costs.

As governor, I will build on these efforts to ensure that healthcare becomes a fundamental right for all Connecticut residents, not a privilege for a select few.

This starts with:

Fortifying the continuum of care options for those suffering from mental health conditions and substance use disorders and supporting mental health parity laws.
Advocating for early intervention and treatment to save lives and help the state contain rising healthcare costs.
Taking strong and multipronged action to reduce drug prices. I will hold pharmaceutical companies and pharmacy drug managers accountable by supporting initiatives that require they disclose drug prices, discounts and rebates. I will require drug companies to make their wholesale prices clear in advertising and detailing. I will limit the anticompetitive "coupons" for privately insured patients that Medicaid and Medicare have already done away with.
Capping out-of-pocket pharmaceutical costs so that consumers pay no more than $275 on drugs per month ($75 on generics and $200 on brand name drugs).
Implementing a sustainable solution to fund the Medicare Savings Program and protect the state's Medicaid program (HUSKY).
Strengthening our state's Access Health CT exchange by instituting a Medicaid buy-in option which would lower costs by adding younger participants to the pool and ensure quality and affordable coverage for all.
Implementing a reinsurance program on the Access Health CT exchange, which will meaningfully lower premiums as it has in other states.
Supporting strong, common sense measures on public health to reduce smoking, improve vaccination rates, reduce childhood obesity, and reduce infant and maternal mortality -- particularly in our communities of color.
Capping out-of-network prices and fees at emergency rooms and hospitals. Further, no one should be hit with a surprise bill from an ER or hospital that was in-network because one of the doctors was out-of-network. The in-network rate must apply to all staff who work at the hospital.
Mandating that medical records be fully, costlessly, and digitally portable by 2021. We live in the 21st-century, and fax machines are no longer an appropriate way to share medical records.

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