Connecticut Public Health Committee raises 13 bill concepts and OKs drafting of committee Senate bill on health-care access

The Connecticut General Assembly Public Health Committee voted to raise 13 legislative concepts and approved drafting a committee bill, Senate Bill 7, intended to protect access to health care and to promote equitable delivery of services.

Committee leaders said the concepts cover a range of issues that the panel will consider in the 2025 session, including Department of Social Services recommendations on implementing an all‑payer health equity approach and a hospital global payment methodology tied to a federal innovation model; proposed revisions to developmental services and mental‑health statutes; studies to consider designation changes for long‑term acute care; a pancreatic cancer screening program; corrections‑health proposals; certificate‑of‑need reforms; protections for reproductive‑health access; private‑equity oversight of health‑care institutions; a proposal to require automated external defibrillators in nursing homes; and updates to tobacco and vapor product regulation.

Why it matters: the concepts set the committee's drafting priorities and shape which topics will move to formal bill text, hearings and votes. Several items involve state agencies or interagency coordination (for example, the Department of Social Services, Department of Developmental Services and the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services) and, in at least one case, a previously awarded…