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March 22, 2024

‘Up in flames’: CT insurance committee advances no bills, including small biz pooling proposal

KEITH M. PHANEUF / CTMIRROR.ORG Gov. Ned Lamont greets Rep. Kerry Wood, co-chair of the Insurance Committee, in this 2018 file photo.
By Jenna Carlesso, CT Mirror

The deadline for the Insurance and Real Estate Committee to advance bills passed Thursday with members taking no votes on legislation this session, an unusual move that drew concern and criticism from committee members and legislative leaders.

“You don’t ever want to see a committee get to this point. Obviously, we’ve got to figure out what happened and how to avoid it in the future,” House Speaker Matthew Ritter, D-Hartford, said. “There’s blame to go around. There are a lot of strong personalities on that committee, and I think everybody shares in the blame as to what happened here.”

“It’s a byproduct of years of adversarial relationships that just keeps boiling over, and everybody could have been better than they were,” he added.

Ritter said that during his time in the legislature, “it’s been unprecedented for a committee to pass no bills.” He was elected in 2010.

“I’ve never heard of a committee not passing anything,” he said.

Rep. Kerry Wood, D-Rocky Hill, a co-chair of the committee, said there were disagreements about what items to put on meeting agendas, and by the time consensus was reached, deadlines had passed.

“When we finally came to agreements, we unfortunately were past the deadline,” she said. “I think there were just issues with people’s schedules and making this stuff happen in a timely manner.

“There was a willingness to negotiate on all different kinds of bills, but we lost track of time and weren’t able to get it done.”

Asked if she was concerned about the optics of not passing bills, Wood replied: “No, we will definitely be getting insurance bills done.”

Sen. Jorge Cabrera, D-Hamden, co-chair of the committee, could not be reached for an interview. In statement through a spokesman, Cabrera wrote: “Unfortunately, we were unable to come to an agreement on bills, but I will continue to fight for the important policies heard by the Insurance Committee, especially issues involving mental health.”

Some people attributed the conflict to disagreements over certain proposals, especially a measure to study parity in mental health coverage among insurers and a bill that would allow businesses with 50 or fewer employees to pool their resources and offer affordable health care options. Others said members couldn’t agree on agenda items. The committee abruptly canceled its meetings on Tuesday and Thursday.

It had been considering dozens of bills, including a measure that would require the state to weigh affordability during its annual rate review process for health plans, a proposal that would prohibit insurers and health care centers from mandating prior authorization for transports — when medically necessary — by ambulance to hospitals, and a broad bill introduced by Gov. Ned Lamont to address health care affordability.

Several members declined to comment on the disagreements, referring questions to committee chairs. But they expressed frustration over not passing bills.

“It’s disappointing,” said Sen. Martha Marx, D-New London. “There were good bills. We’re up in Hartford with one job to do, and that’s to pass legislation. And we’re not passing bills out of the insurance committee.”

Marx and others said they had hoped to see the mental health parity bill advance.

“Like most members of the committee, I am frustrated and disappointed that we couldn’t move mental health parity legislation — which has overwhelming bipartisan support — forward this session, or other non-controversial priorities,” said Sen. Matthew Lesser, D-Middletown.

“I’m pretty disappointed and frustrated, because a lot of us work very hard in this committee,” added Rep. Cara Pavalock-D’Amato, R-Bristol, a ranking member. “We meet all year round. We have meetings for different departments and working groups at least twice a month all year. To have all that work go out the window is frustrating.”

Sen. Saud Anwar, D-South Windsor, called Thursday’s canceled meeting a “missed opportunity.”

“I’m disappointed in today’s cancellation of the Insurance and Real Estate Committee’s meeting because of the opportunities lost to pass important bills helping our state,” he said. “This is a missed opportunity and will leave important issues unaddressed for the rest of this session.”

Sen. Tony Hwang, R-Fairfield, a ranking Republican on the committee, said the biggest blow was to residents who may have lost out on opportunities for more affordable insurance or better access to coverage.

“All of that, unfortunately, went up in flames,” he said. “This is unprecedented, and a real disappointment for me.

“The people who lose in us not addressing these bills are the residents of Connecticut, who now don’t have an opportunity for some of the [proposals] that we discussed.”

What will happen to the committee’s bills?

The deadline for a committee to advance bills could be extended by amending the legislature’s rules or declaring an emergency, both of which legislative leaders said they’re not willing to do.

“I’m not even going to entertain that, not in a short session,” Ritter said. “We normally extend deadlines for reasons like somebody loses a family member or gets sick, or we have a bunch of snow days. There was no excuse for this, so it is hard for me to go to [Republican leaders] and say, ‘Hey, I need some votes to amend the rules.’”

Proposals from the Insurance and Real Estate Committee could be added to bills that are being debated in other committees or as amendments to bills when they come up for votes in the House or the Senate. They also could be included in the state budget implementer.

Julia Bergman, Lamont’s spokeswoman, said the governor was disappointed the committee didn’t take up his wide-ranging health care bill.

“The governor believes Connecticut is home to some of the highest quality health care systems in the world but too many people cannot afford to access that care. That’s why he put forward a proposal this legislative session to address some of the largest drivers of health care costs,” she said. “He is disappointed the committee failed to act on his bill.”

Wood said she hopes to see several proposals win approval through other avenues, including the small business insurance pooling bill.

“Anything we can do to help small businesses and nonprofits at this point is critical,” she said.

Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, a key supporter of the plan to include affordability during the rate review process, said he is hopeful the proposal will surface in some other fashion, possibly in the budget implementer.

“Obviously, it was a disappointing breakdown in the process,” he said, “but certainly not fatal to the concepts we want to advance.”

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