Threat by Cigna CEO to leave Connecticut kills public option health legislation

May 29-- May 29--Legislation to establish government-subsidized health care in Connecticut is dead following a threat by the chief executive officer of Cigna Corp. that the Bloomfield insurer would leave Connecticut if lawmakers and Gov. Ned Lamont enacted the measure, Comptroller Kevin Lembo said Wednesday.

Cigna Corp. CEO David Cordani threatened to send a public letter to Lamont that if the public option bill moves forward, "they would reconsider where they're domiciled," Lembo told The Courant.

Cordani made the threat as legislators and other insurance carriers were negotiating the legislation Tuesday night, Lembo said.

Another representative of Cigna spoke with the governor's office Wednesday and said, " 'well, you know, if you change this and you change that and you change this and you change that, maybe if we have time to analyze that we might be able to not oppose it as strongly,' knowing full well that we're out of time," Lembo said.

The legislative session ends June 5 and the legislation would have to begin its trek through the General Assembly Wednesday or Thursday at the latest if it is to be approved by the House and Senate.

A spokeswoman for Cigna did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lembo said Cigna "questioned everything from the design of the reinsurance pool to the 20 percent savings target to how I would go out and contract for the master policy.

"It was essentially every element of the public option piece of the bill. At the last minute."

Lamont and Democratic leaders of the General Assembly unveiled legislation Thursday proposing state-subsidized health insurance. It would offer coverage that meets or exceeds health plan offerings and "within available appropriations" provide state-financed subsidies for those who do not qualify for federal health care subsidies.

The legislation proposes to tax opioids, establish an individual mandate with a penalty for not participating, authorize the comptroller to establish rates for a new provider network to support a health care program and would impose surcharges on individual and group health insurance policies.

Health care executives have publicly opposed the measure. Last week, six executives, including Wendy Sherry, Cigna market president for Connecticut, wrote to Lamont urging him to kill the legislation. They said the legislation had too few details to merit the industry's support.

Ted Doolittle, the state's healthcare advocate, criticized Cigna before Lembo disclosed the insurer's threat. It has a "couple thousand small group and individual" customers in Connecticut, Doolittle said.

"So I look with great skepticism on comments from companies that have for many years showed no interest in catering to Connecticut consumers maintaining that any proposed reform plan is bad for the people of this state," he said in an email.

Lembo accused Cordani of acting more from political impulse than to protect his business.

"This is not an existential threat to them," he said. "It's an ideological threat to the CEO of Cigna."

Stephen Singer can be reached at ssinger@courant.com.

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