Good News for North-Central Connecticut Seniors

By: Senator John A. Kissel

North-Central Connecticut seniors saw some good news come out of Hartford last week as the Connecticut General Assembly successfully passed a bipartisan bill that restores funding for the Medicare Savings Program.

Eligibility levels for the Medicare Savings Program were adjusted in the bipartisan budget approved last year. After learning about the widespread impact of these funding reductions, legislators worked together to restore the funding. We did this by making changes in the state budget through a bill that was passed by the General Assembly last week.

To restore the funding for the Medicare Savings Program, we adopted savings in the budget and made cuts to funding in other areas of government such as executive appointments, consultant fees, and duplicative human resource functions in state government. Moving forward, it is my hope that the governor sees the importance of this unified effort among all lawmakers to restore the funding for this program.

I would also like to thank my colleagues in the legislature for working together to negotiate this plan to restore this funding. By making this change we can bring peace of mind to over 100,000 low-income elderly and disabled individuals who have shared their concerns with legislators across the state.

As we move closer to the 2018 Legislative Session I hope that this successful bipartisan effort will continue to lead our efforts to work together to undertake the state deficit. Working together I am hopeful that we will be able to move Connecticut in a new direction, so that all Connecticut residents, young and old, can look forward to a prosperous future.