Gov. Ned Lamont, Comptroller Sean Scanlon, and a coalition of state legislators gathered at Fair Haven Community Health Care for a joint campaign event to send a message: healthcare access matters to incumbent Democratic politicians. The politicians took unified pride in an array of state health policy victories, from insulin price caps to medical debt cancellations to paid family and medical leave. Still, signs of split visions emerged in the group when it came to the big picture question of whether and how private health insurance companies should operate in Connecticut. The event at 374 Grand Ave. on Monday afternoon was co-organized by campaigns for Lamont and Scanlon — who have previously diverged on structural overhauls of healthcare. While Lamont has come out firmly against the prospect of public health insurance, Scanlon has historically advocated for a public option. Now, the two are both incumbents running for re-election as allies. Lamont is running for a third four-year term as governor; he faces a Democratic primary challenge from Hamden State Rep. Josh Elliott as well as Republican opposition from Greenwich State Sen. Ryan Fazio. Scanlon is running for a second four-year term as the state comptroller, with a Republican challenger in former Westport First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker. On Monday, Scanlon expressed enthusiasm for Lamont’s vision for a public-private partnership fueling healthcare reform in the state. Specifically, Lamont has proposed that the state work with private insurance companies to create a health insurance plan called the “Connecticut Option.” Under Lamont’s proposal, the state would design a more affordable health plan specifically for small businesses, nonprofits, and individuals, incentivizing them to seek care from a “preferred network” of lower-cost healthcare providers. The plan would be administered by one or more private health insurance companies. The state legislature recently approved a study of the feasibility of such a program. “I can’t tell you how excited I am to work with him,” Scanlon said of Lamont, “to create the Connecticut Option — something we have been talking about in the state for a very, very long time.” “With the help of the legislature, we’re gonna pass the Connecticut Option that allows all of those small businesses, and all the nonprofits in our state, to join the plan that we run,” Scanlon said, “so that they can finally have the leverage that they have never had of getting access to affordable health insurance… I’m very, very proud to be a part of it.” Soon-to-retire New Haven State Sen. and President Pro Tem Martin Looney also expressed support for Lamont’s Connecticut Option plan — not as a final destination, but as a meaningful incremental step along the way toward ending the for-profit health insurance industry in Connecticut. Looney praised the Connecticut Option plan as a means for small employers and nonprofits “to get better terms and better conditions and better negotiating power in terms of health insurance” — at least in the short term. “That’s gonna be critical until the day comes when we don’t have health insurance at all in the hands of entities whose primary is profit,” Looney said. “The insurance industry should be life insurance, homeowner’s and auto insurance, property casualty insurance, business opportunity insurance,” Looney continued. “It shouldn’t be healthcare. That’s a fundamental right… and that should not be mediated through private insurance companies.” “But until we can get to that point in the future, we have to move on to things like the Connecticut Option, and other things, to create larger pools that people can be able to participate in,” Looney said. Lamont and Scanlon meet Fair Haven Community Health Care patient Leslie Davenport. Lamont’s public-private proposal illustrates one difference between Lamont and his Democratic primary challenger, State Rep. Josh Elliott. Elliott is advocating for an entirely public health insurance option that “moves us gradually toward a single-payer system,” as his campaign website states. “We need to improve the existing state health insurance plan, and slowly start bringing working people onto it,” the website declares, “starting with municipal workers, then non-profits, then small businesses.” Asked to elaborate on this policy difference, Lamont responded that, “Talk is cheap.” His plan, he argued, is a way “to make sure that we have universal health care for people.” “I’m doing it in a way that we can get it passed, and get it done,” Lamont said. Asked for comment on these remarks, Elliott argued in a phone interview that a public option is not “something pie in the sky.” “On three separate occasions, over different sessions, he has been the sole reason that an option has died — and it’s because the insurance companies say, ‘We are going to leave the state,’ and so he buckles every time,” Elliott argued. In 2021, Looney attributed the failure of a public option bill to a lack of support from the governor, who had threatened not to sign it, according to the CT Mirror. “The private healthcare industry is broken at its core,” Elliott added. “When you have this amount of profit, you’re not going to have a system that works.” At another moment, Scanlon reflected, “When I was a brand new rookie state rep, thinking I could change the world, I had this misconception — which is that you could go up to the Capitol in Hartford, and you could pass one bill on healthcare, and solve all the problems.” “That’s not the way it works,” Scanlon said. “It’s the cumulative nature of your work and the cumulative nature of progress. It’s not about bumper sticker slogans, or just putting out tweets in press releases. It’s about rolling up your sleeves and delivering day after day, week after week, month after month.” State Sen. Martin Looney, State Rep. Pat Dillon, and Gov. Ned Lamont. Over the course of Monday’s event, Lamont, Scanlon, and the state legislators heralded an array of individual programs building up to that “cumulative nature of progress.” New Haven State Rep. Toni Walker, the chair of the state legislature’s Appropriations Committee, framed their achievements the in context of President Donald Trump’s cuts to healthcare funding. In Connecticut, she noted, “over a million people are dependent upon some sort of government subsidy. Those people have been disrupted and have no understanding of where their life, where their food, and everything is going to be.” Lamont specifically touted the state’s $115 million emergency allocation to mitigate the expiration of federal Affordable Care Act subsidies under the Trump administration, helping many residents continue to afford their healthcare premiums. He also celebrated a state program that has canceled over $500 million in medical debt for “hundreds of thousands of people” since 2024, as well as a law capping insulin copays at $25 for a 30-day supply. The press conference additionally highlighted the state’s Health Horizons program, which provides tuition support for nursing and social work students, aspiring to enter fields experiencing staffing shortages. A trio of nursing students at Albertus Magnus spoke to the impact of the program on their ability to afford the training to become healthcare professionals. “I used to come here to Fair Haven clinic,” said Gladys Washington, a senior pursuing her BSN at Albertus. “My kids came here when I could not afford insurance. And so for me to be able to go to nursing school and take advantage of the programs that they have to offer, and then to come back here and do my clinical… That is full circle to me,” she said. New Haven State Rep. Pat Dillon also spoke as a candidate running for re-election in a contested primary; she’s facing challenges from fellow Westville residents Eli Sabin and Justin Farmer. Dillon is the co-chair the Health Subcommittee of the legislature’s Appropriations Committee. She elaborated on the medical debt cancellation program. “People have stereotypes about who needs healthcare. Young people are graduating from school; they don’t necessarily have jobs. Young adults have a lot of medical debt,” she said. “I’m proud of the work that was done.” Lamont echoed this pride. “These are all the little things we can do to make life a little more affordable for people,” he said. Albertus Magnus nursing student Gladys Washington, left, lauds Health Horizons program alongside fellow students Abigail and Nannetta Burch. The post Lamont, Scanlon Unite On “CT Option” appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less