HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Ned Lamont issued a proclamation calling the Connecticut General Assembly to meet in special session beginning Tuesday, July 21, 2020 at 9:00 a.m. to:
1. Enact legislation to (a) temporarily expand absentee balloting for the August 2020 primary and November 2020 general election in response to the COVID-19 pandemic so that voters may lawfully cast absentee ballots because of the sickness of COVID-19; (b) temporarily alter statutes governing the administration of elections to ensure local officials may administer such absentee balloting in a secure and orderly manner; and (c) permit voters to register and vote on election day at more than one place per town and to do so as long as they are in line to register to vote before 8:00 p.m.;
2. Enact legislation to promote greater transparency and accountability for law enforcement;
3. Enact legislation to (a) temporarily relax restrictions on who can provide certain telehealth services and the modes through which such services are delivered; (b) assist health care practitioners in issuing and pharmacies in transferring prescriptions; (c) temporarily make such services more available to certain publicly and privately insured patients; and
4. Enact legislation to promote more affordable access to prescription drugs, equipment, and supplies used to treat diabetes by (a) limiting the coinsurance, copayments, deductibles and other out-of-pocket expenses certain insurance policies may impose on insureds for such drugs, equipment, and supplies; (b) authorizing licensed pharmacists to prescribe and dispense emergency quantities of such drugs, equipment, and supplies; (c) establishing a working group to design certain parameters of a program referring eligible individuals who have been diagnosed with diabetes to a federally-qualified health center, and authorizing the commissioner of social services to apply for a Medicaid waiver, pursuant to Section 1115 of the Social Security Act; and (d) more closely confirming various provisions of the general statutes concerning high deductible health plans to provisions of the Internal Revenue Code concerning health savings accounts and medical savings accounts.
“COVID-19 has interrupted nearly all state business, and as we continue to navigate this pandemic there are several urgent items that we need to consider in order to move our state forward,” Governor Lamont said. “Taking up these topics makes an awful lot of sense in this current environment, and through my discussions with legislative leaders I am glad that we’ve reached a consensus on the importance of tackling these issues and getting them done now.”
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