Josh believes in
Delivering Universal Healthcare
Health insurance as an industry should not exist. For too long, working people have been taken advantage of by insurance corporations who have no obligation to care about anything other than their bottom lines. And it’s not just people who are hurt by this. Budgets for small businesses and municipalities are becoming more and more strained as they have to pay for insurance for their employees. The system is broken and we know it.
Connecticut is the insurance capital of the world. To take on this industry, we need a Governor with the political courage to do so. For too long we have had one who is not willing to take on tough fights. It’s time to change that.
The solutions:
Deliver a Real Public Option: Working people deserve more than rhetoric when it comes to health insurance. They deserve a real public option. One that moves us gradually toward a single-payer system. We need to improve the existing state health insurance plan, and slowly start bringing working people onto it; starting with municipal workers, then non-profits, then small businesses. Under this system, we will ensure that people can see the state plan in action and know that it works.
Invest in Job Training and Preparedness: In the process of taking on the insurance companies, Connecticut may lose some insurance jobs. That’s a reality we must tackle head on. Preemptively investing in job training programs will be essential to ensuring folks are not out of work. This also includes tuition and training assistance for those seeking to enter a new field.
Hold the Duopoly Accountable: A Connecticut Healthcare Consumer Protection Agency: Two hospital systems should not control two-thirds of Connecticut's healthcare market. But without a governor willing to name the problem and use the power of the office against it, they will keep tightening their grip. Meanwhile, Connecticut lacks an agency with the ability to fine a hospital system, subpoena records, or block a merger. Because of this Hartford Healthcare and Yale New Haven have operated inside this regulatory gap freely for more than a decade. The result is contained in a 2024 report from CT’s own Office of Health Strategy which confirmed that hospitals which gained market power through consolidation raised prices faster than the rest of the state.
The newly created Connecticut Healthcare Consumer Protection Agency will have investigative authority, subpoena power, and the capacity to enforce against hospital systems, insurance companies, drug manufacturers and PBMs. It will:
Investigate anti-competitive practices, monopolistic behavior, and price-fixing, especially within CT’s hospital duopoly.
Block hospital and insurer contracts that foreclose competition or lock patients out of lower-cost care.
Rate review with modification authority with the power to approve, modify, or reject proposed premium increases. Insurers whose rates are unreasonable will be required to justify those increases at public hearings.
Enforce a strengthened Certificate of Need process, closing the loopholes that have allowed consolidation to proceed unchecked.
Set Affordability Standards tied to hospital price growth modeled on Rhode Island's approach that saved consumers hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
Protection of UConn Health as Connecticut's public anchor.
Protect HUSKY and Fight the Donald Trump’s attack on 100,000 Connecticut Families: The federal work requirements in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill are deliberately designed to be difficult to comply with. History tells us what happens: in the states that have tried Medicaid work requirements, the overwhelming majority of people who lost coverage were actually working or they were cut off because the administrative process failed them, not because they failed to work. Ned Lamont’s wait and see approach puts the health care coverage of 200,000 residents at risk. As your Governor, I will work far more proactively to ensure that no one loses coverage. As governor, I will:
On day 1, instruct DSS to establish a state Basic Health Plan, a bridge program for anyone who loses coverage due to Donald Trump’s attack on our Medicaid program, keeping them covered while they appeal or re-enroll.
Open enrollment up to CT’s State Partnership Plan to anyone who loses coverage due to Trump’s work requirements and ensure they are not paying outrageous sums out of pocket for the coverage.
Invest in DSS cross-agency data-sharing so compliance is as simple as possible, and no one loses access due to administrative failure.
Connecticut Public Pharma By Producing Affordable Drugs: Drug prices in Connecticut are contributing to the affordability crisis, but we are not without agency. A Connecticut Public Pharma program will fund state manufacturing of essential generic drugs, beginning with insulin, with full public ownership of any intellectual property developed using public dollars. State agencies, HUSKY, and Access Health CT will use Connecticut-manufactured products first. Insurers will be required to cover the state product and charge no more for generics than the state product price.