SEN. JORGE CABRERA COMMENT ON INSURANCE DEPARTMENT RATE HIKES FOR 220,000 CONNECTICUT RESIDENTS

State Senator Jorge Cabrera (D-Hamden), who is Senate Chair of the Insurance and Real Estate Committee, issued the following statement today in response to the Connecticut Insurance Department announcing on Friday, September 11, 2026, its final rate decisions for 2027 that affect 220,000 Connecticut residents who are insured on the Access Health CT health insurance exchange. Following extensive actuarial analysis, the Department approved an average increase of 11.3% in the individual market and 15.1% in the small group market, compared with initial insurance company requests of 16.2% and 17.8%, respectively.
 

“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. Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans cutting federal health care subsidies also hurt Connecticut residents and affected rate increases. Insurance companies make profits. Pharmaceutical companies make profits. But if we’re truly serious about offering 220,000 people in Connecticut quality, affordable health care without these annual price spikes, we need to enact universal health care – first in Connecticut, then nationwide. America is the only wealthy country on the planet that doesn’t offer some form of universal health care. The existing system is obviously broken, so it’s time for a new system. That’s the solution. The good news is that we took a major step in that direction in May, when Democrats passed a budget that calls for creating the Connecticut Option plan, which is designed to lower health care coverage costs and expand health care coverage.”