Did Ryan Fazio vote to raise health insurance costs by $800 like Ned Lamont claims?

Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont is accusing Republican challenger Ryan Fazio of voting to raise healthcare costs for Connecticut families by $800 a month in a new TV campaign ad.

The new Lamont campaign ad, titled "My Patients," centers on Fazio's November 2025 vote against using $500 million in state surplus funds to establish a special state contingency fund to respond to federal budget cuts and other policy changes that reduce federal assistance to Connecticut.

The attack ad charges that Fazio voted to raise healthcare costs for Connecticut families when he opposed the creation of the Federal Cuts Response Fund because Lamont later directed $115 million from the fund to be used to offset the loss of federal Affordable Care Act tax credits that President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress let expire on Dec. 31.

"Families in Connecticut are still feeling the impact from Trump's healthcare cuts, and Ned Lamont has been the one working to ease that burden," said Lauren Gray, communications director for the Lamont campaign. "Ryan Fazio had the chance to stand with those families and chose Trump instead, voting for cuts that are now costing them $800 a month. Connecticut families deserve a governor who fights for their healthcare, not one who votes to make it more expensive."

But Fazio charged Lamont bears responsibility for rising healthcare insurance costs in Connecticut.

"He's been in office for eight years, and, over those eight years, healthcare costs have gone up by more than 10% every single year, annualized," Fazio said. "He has failed to reform our healthcare system in this state in a way to make healthcare affordable, and instead of taking responsibility for that failure, now he's casting aspersions, trying to blame legislators who voted against his tax-and-spend policies."

The state Department of Insurance on Sept. 11 announced the approved 2027 rates for individual and small-group health insurance plans offered on and off the state-sponsored exchange that represent average increases of 11.3% in the individual market and 15.1% in the small-group market. The combined average annual rate increase for Connecticut's individual and small-group markets from 2019 through 2027 is slightly less than 8%, according to Department of Insurance figures.

The claim

The "My Patients" ad features a nurse of 40 years named Eileen who describes the toll that the loss of the Affordable Care Act subsidies has taken on her patients and credits Lamont for helping people afford their health insurance premiums.

"But Ryan Fazio, he voted to support Trump's cuts and to raise our healthcare costs $800 a month," an unseen narrator states in a voiceover.

Nurse Eileen then closes out the campaign spot, saying, "We just can't take a chance with Fazio. Just imagine if he were governor."

The research

Enhanced tax credits that helped reduce the cost of health insurance for the vast majority of Affordable Care Act enrollees expired Dec. 31 because Trump and Republicans in Congress refused to extend the credits a second time.

The ACA subsidies were first enacted under President Joe Biden in 2021 as a temporary measure to help Americans get through the COVID-19 pandemic. The Inflation Reduction Act that Biden signed in August 2022 extended them through 2025.

The enhanced subsidies had helped tens of thousands of Connecticut residents pay for health coverage through the state-run health insurance marketplace while they lasted. Nine out of 10 enrollees had benefited from those COVID-era tax credits, according to Access Health CT statistics. The enhanced credits provided a reported $350 million to $400 million in premium subsidies to more than 140,000 state residents.

In a November special session, the Democrat-controlled legislature voted to set aside $500 million in state surplus funds in a special contingency fund under the control of the governor to potentially use to fill gaps in federal spending. The legislature approved an additional $50 million in the 2026 session.

The state-level action came at the end of a 43-day partial government shutdown that Democrats in Congress forced over demands to extend the ACA subsidies. The state House voted to establish the contingency fund on the same day that Trump signed a government funding bill that ended the political standoff, and the state Senate granted final legislative approval the following day. Lamont signed the bill five days after the Senate approval.

Republicans split in the House and Senate votes on the enabling legislation. Fazio was among eight Republican senators who voted against the measure; three GOP senators supported it. House Republicans broke 27 votes for the bill and 20 against it. No Democrats voted against the proposal.

In the Senate debate, Fazio argued that the reopening of the federal government negated the premise for the $500 million contingency fund. He objected to the amount of the appropriation, the open-ended purposes of the fund, the surrendering of the legislature's constitutional power of the purse to the governor, the circumvention of state budgeting rules to create the fund and the potential precedent that action might set, and the diversion of the $500 million from being used to pay off long-term pension debt early.

While Fazio questioned what healthcare programs state funds would be used to support, he did not speak directly to the expiring ACA subsidies.

"I'm not sure what type of programs are covered under healthcare," Fazio said during the Senate debate. "There could be dozens of different programs. But there is nothing to ensure that we are actually meeting the needs because the proponents of the bill have not explained what specific needs are, to what extent those needs exist, and how they add up to $500 million."

He concluded, "Maybe they're more, maybe they're less, but this is entirely open-ended, which is not a responsible way of taking care of taxpayer dollars, of taking care of state employees' dollars, and of taking care of the people who rely on programs, if there is no budgeting whatsoever, and if we are surrendering our powers as a legislature to actually make these decisions for the people who elected us."

In December, Lamont allocated $115 million from the Federal Cuts Response Fund to partially offset the loss of the enhanced ACA subsidies for the 2026 calendar year. It was part of the first $167.9 million allocation from the special fund.

Lamont directed $64.1 million to fully replace the expiring subsidies for individuals enrolled in the Covered CT program that provides free health insurance, dental care and medical transportation to eligible low-income residents.

The governor also provided nearly $50.8 million to replace the subsidies for individuals not enrolled in Covered CT. People with yearly incomes between 100% and 200% of the federal poverty level were eligible to receive a state subsidy equal to 100% of expired federal aid, and a 50% subsidy was available to individuals between 400% and 500% of the standard income measure.

In addition, $5 million was set aside for supplemental payments to federally qualified health centers for primary and preventive care for those individuals with incomes below 100% of the federal poverty level at risk of losing coverage due to the elimination of federal health plan subsidies.

Access Health CT reported that, on average, $1,079 in premium assistance had been provided to Connecticut households per month in the 2025 plan year. The Lamont campaign said its $800 monthly figure is based on an Access Health CT estimate from last October that a household of four would see premiums rise by an average of approximately $10,000 per year without the enhanced subsidies. That roughly works out to $833 a month. Access Health CT confirmed the cited estimate.

The verdict

No one in the Connecticut General Assembly voted to discontinue the enhanced ACA credits; the president and the Congress decided not to extend those federal subsidies.

But Fazio did vote against the creation of the Federal Cuts Response Fund. In the special act that passed last November, one of the stated purposes of the contingency fund was to make up federal cuts to healthcare programs. Offsetting the losses of the enhanced ACA subsidies was frequently cited as a possible use in the lead-up to the November special session and during the House and Senate debates.

The Lamont campaign premised its claim that Fazio voted to raise health insurance premiums by $800 on his vote against the Federal Cuts Response Fund and Access Health CT estimates. The legislative record of Fazio's "no" vote is undeniable, and Access Health CT stood by the estimate that the Lamont campaign cited.

While Fazio never directly voted to raise insurance premiums, the Lamont campaign infers that his opposition to creating the Federal Cuts Response Fund is equivalent to having voted to increase premiums for state residents purchasing coverage through Access Health CT.

Distributed by Newsbank, inc.