Senate President Martin Looney and State Senator Jorge Cabrera criticized the Connecticut Insurance Department's final 2027 rate decisions affecting 220,000 residents insured through Access Health CT, following the Department's approval of average increases of 11.3% in the individual market and 15.1% in the small group market.

Looney said, "Despite granting smaller increases than requested, the rates approved by the Insurance Department are still too high, and part of that has to do with Donald Trump and Republicans ending health insurance subsidies for so many Connecticut residents. The Insurance Department even says so in its rationale for the rate hikes: the expiration of enhanced federal subsidies in the individual market is going to lead to 'increased morbidity' in Connecticut, and the consumer marketplace for these policies is going to shrink as some of the 220,000 healthier members in Access Health Connecticut are going to drop their coverage because it's getting too expensive."

Looney noted that Democrats and Governor Lamont provided premium assistance late last year, though he called it an incomplete solution, and said he submitted testimony to the Insurance Department earlier this month expressing frustration that insurers, hospitals, and pharmacy benefit managers point at each other for rate increases without taking responsibility.

Cabrera, Senate Chair of the Insurance and Real Estate Committee, said, "History tells us that the Insurance Department was never going to be able to reduce the requested rate hikes by more than a few percentage points. This has been the pattern over the past decade, as health care and prescription costs and new health care mandates rise faster than anyone can afford."

Cabrera called for enacting universal health care, first in Connecticut and then nationwide, pointing to the Connecticut Option plan passed in this year's state budget as a step toward lowering coverage costs and expanding access.