Connecticut’s reputation follows its lawmakers wherever they go. Rep. Kerry Wood, a Democrat from Rocky Hill and co-chair of the legislature’s Insurance and Real Estate Committee, said colleagues across the country raise the same point again and again.
Connecticut carries more health insurance mandates than anywhere else. The price shows up in insurance premiums.
Wood said the state’s long list of required benefits feeds directly into coverage costs. Business groups have argued this for years, warning the burden falls hardest on small employers. Some legislators tried to slow the growth with tighter review rules.
Lawmakers added new requirements during the 2025 session anyway. One mandate now forces coverage of biomarker testing. Another widens autism behavioral therapy coverage, pushing eligibility from under age 21 to under age 26 starting Jan. 1, 2027.
According to a recent report from the Office of Legislative Research, Connecticut now enforces 81 mandated benefits for fully insured commercial plans.
The list runs wide, from accidental ingestion of controlled drugs to Lyme disease treatment and wheelchair repairs. The mandates apply to individual plans, group plans, or both.
That total jumped sharply from earlier counts. A 2014 analysis by the University of Connecticut identified 46 mandates at the time, though methodologies differ.
In 2018, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association placed Connecticut second nationwide. The Connecticut Business & Industry Association said last year the state ranks in the top three and estimated mandates add more than $2,000 to annual premiums.
Wood thinks the number runs higher now. She said the cost tied solely to mandated benefits likely doubled or tripled over the past decade.
She put the figure closer to $5,000 or $6,000 a year before coverage even kicks in. To her, that number borders on absurd.
Wood and Rep. Cara Pavalock-D’Amato, a Republican from Bristol and the committee’s ranking member, said the legislature keeps circling the same fix.
Require real analysis before approving new mandates. House Bill 6895 last year would have done exactly that. It passed the insurance committee 12-1, then stalled in Appropriations.
Pavalock-D’Amato compared the idea to a fiscal note. Show lawmakers the premium impact before they vote. She said numbers change behaviour.
