{"id":500843,"date":"2026-03-03T08:12:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T08:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/500843\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T08:12:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T08:12:17","slug":"what-to-know-about-lamonts-ct-option-plan-for-health-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/500843\/","title":{"rendered":"What to know about Lamont\u2019s “CT option” plan for health care"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Ned Lamont has made health care affordability a cornerstone of his policy agenda. In his reelection campaign launch and during his State of the State address<\/a>, he touted a long-term goal to develop what he\u2019s calling the \u201cConnecticut option\u201d \u2014 a health plan that would bring universal, affordable health care to the state.<\/p>\n

What would the Connecticut option offer and when could residents enroll? Here\u2019s everything you need to know about what\u2019s been proposed so far.<\/p>\n

How would it work?<\/p>\n

This session, Lamont proposed legislation<\/a> that would direct the state Office of Policy and Management to study the feasibility of a \u201cConnecticut option.\u201d The bill states that the plan would be designed by the state, but run by private insurers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Small businesses, nonprofits and individuals would be able to purchase the coverage. Lamont said the state will aim to make insurance more affordable by creating a \u201cpreferred network\u201d of providers that offer high-quality, low-cost care, and then incentivizing plan participants to go see them for care.<\/p>\n

That network would probably start with the state\u2019s own University of Connecticut Health Center, as well as Waterbury Hospital \u2014 its newest acquisition, Lamont said. But, eventually, the state would negotiate a cap on the cost of care with any hospitals willing to come to the table, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cA big piece of what the Connecticut option is about is paying for high-quality, low-cost care, and drawing people towards those networks,\u201d Sean Scanlon said. As state comptroller, Scanlon runs the state employee health plan. He\u2019s also playing a leading role in the development of the Connecticut option.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scanlon said the broad structure currently conceived for the Connecticut option is a \u201ccousin\u201d of the Colorado option program, which launched in 2023. A study published<\/a> in January 2026 found that the program has, in many cases, offered residents lower premiums for similar coverage when compared with non-Colorado option plans and 15% lower out-of-pocket costs on average.<\/p>\n

Is Connecticut\u2019s plan to create a public option?<\/p>\n

Even though the state is still figuring out what the Connecticut option will be, Lamont is clear on one thing: It will not be a traditional \u201cpublic option,\u201d where the government administers the plan and bears the financial risk.<\/p>\n

In 2019 and 2021, Scanlon, who served as co-chair of the Insurance Committee at the time, was part of an effort to propose legislation to launch a more traditional \u201cpublic option\u201d that would allow small businesses and nonprofits to buy into the state employee health plan. (Similar legislation was proposed in 2020, but COVID cut the legislative session short). In 2021, Lamont effectively killed<\/a> the effort when he threatened to veto the bill if it passed the General Assembly.<\/p>\n

In the case of the Connecticut option, the state would design the plan, but a private company \u2014 or companies \u2014 would run it, meaning the state wouldn\u2019t bear the risk if people end up getting more frequent or higher-cost care.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is privately managed. They take the risk, not the taxpayers,\u201d Lamont said.<\/p>\n

When would this new option take effect?<\/p>\n

Not for a few years, at least.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If Lamont\u2019s bill to look into a Connecticut option passes this session, Scanlon said the state would spend the rest of the year studying the details of what the Connecticut option should look like, including researching what other states have done.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The aim would be to propose legislation in 2027 with a \u201cfully baked and studied plan\u201d for the Connecticut option.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Ned Lamont has made health care affordability a cornerstone of his policy agenda. In his reelection campaign…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[100352,22425,97,252,253],"class_list":["post-500843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-2026-legislative-session","tag-feature-story","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}