Conn. budget feels effects of federal healthcare

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The federal health care overhaul law is providing both challenges and opportunities for Connecticut lawmakers as they try to reach a state budget compromise with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

Malloy's two-year, $43.8 billion proposal includes millions of dollars in spending needed to comply with the federal health care law. But it also relies on millions of dollars in savings that the law generates.

About $382 million is spent on caseload growth in human services agencies and changes under the Affordable Care Act. That includes expanding Medicaid eligibility to more people and increasing Medicaid payments to primary care physicians. The state eventually will be reimbursed.

Malloy's plan also saves money by moving some Medicaid patients into private plans to be offered by the new Connecticut Health Insurance Exchange in 2014.