Tooker: Enrollment Is Not a Measure of Success. Results Are.

Before expanding the Partnership Plan, Comptroller should show taxpayers whether it is controlling costs

WESTPORT, CT — Republican candidate for State Comptroller Jen Tooker today called for a new level of financial transparency around Connecticut’s Partnership Plan, saying the state should demonstrate that the government-run health plan is controlling costs and financially sustainable before celebrating its continued expansion.

In July, Comptroller Sean Scanlon announced that 17 additional groups representing 6,362 people had joined the Partnership Plan, bringing total enrollment to more than 74,700 municipal employees, retirees and family members. Scanlon cited increased enrollment as evidence of the plan’s strength.

Tooker said the Comptroller should be measuring something more important.

“Enrollment is not a measure of success. Results are,” Tooker said. “Before we celebrate putting thousands more people into a government-run health plan, taxpayers deserve to know whether that plan is actually controlling costs, whether its finances are sustainable and what its continued expansion means years from now.”

The Partnership Plan paid nearly $23 million more in medical claims than it collected in premiums in FY2025, according to the Comptroller’s own annual report. The plan’s medical loss ratio reached 103.6%, meaning claims alone exceeded premium revenue before administrative expenses were considered. Scanlon has said the plan remains fiscally sound and noted that it has generally performed in the black since premiums were adjusted in 2019.

Tooker said that is exactly why taxpayers need to see the full picture.

“A fiscal watchdog shouldn’t tell people to trust the plan simply because more people are joining it, and critics shouldn’t judge it based on one bad year either,” Tooker said. “Put the numbers on the table. Show us the trend. Show us the reserves. Show us the cost per member. Show us whether healthcare costs are actually being controlled. Then taxpayers and towns can judge the results for themselves.”

Tooker said the Partnership Plan is part of a larger healthcare challenge that deserves more scrutiny from the Comptroller’s office.

Connecticut has faced significant increases in healthcare costs for active and retired state employees. In 2025, Scanlon’s office warned that the state needed roughly $228 million more over two fiscal years than initially budgeted to meet those obligations.

The state subsequently authorized the Comptroller to negotiate lower hospital reimbursement rates for active employees and non-Medicare retirees, with the FY2027 budget initially anticipating approximately $72 million in savings across the General and Special Transportation funds. The law specifically did not require those negotiated reductions to be passed through to the Partnership Plan.

At the same time, Connecticut continues to carry a substantial unfunded liability for retiree healthcare. The state has made progress reducing that liability, but its retiree healthcare trust remains funded at only a fraction of its projected obligations.

“This isn't about one plan or one bad year,” Tooker said. “It is about whether Connecticut has a real strategy for controlling healthcare costs or whether we are simply moving more people and more financial risk into government-run plans while the underlying costs keep rising.”

As Comptroller, Tooker said she would make healthcare performance a permanent part of the state's fiscal reporting, including:

Publish a Partnership Plan scorecard. Premiums collected, claims paid, administrative costs, reserves, enrollment and per-member costs, with historical comparisons so taxpayers can see the trend rather than a single year.
Measure results, not enrollment. Compare the Partnership Plan's per-member cost growth against appropriate public- and private-sector benchmarks and publicly report whether it is actually bending the healthcare cost curve.
Show the long-term exposure. Publish five-year projections for the Partnership Plan and the state's employee and retiree healthcare obligations under reasonable medical inflation and utilization assumptions.
Show what cost negotiations actually delivered. When the Comptroller is given authority to negotiate healthcare savings, publish the savings projected, the savings actually achieved and which state health plans benefited.
Put retiree healthcare liabilities in plain English. Report annually what Connecticut owes, what has been set aside, what is being contributed or withdrawn and how today's decisions affect future taxpayers.

“Healthcare is complicated. The Comptroller’s responsibility is to make the finances understandable,” Tooker said. “If a program is working, prove it. If costs are rising, explain why. If taxpayers are taking on additional risk, show them. That is what an independent fiscal watchdog is supposed to do.”

Tooker said her approach to healthcare reflects the same principle she has applied to other state financial issues: government should demonstrate that existing programs are delivering results before making them larger.

“I don’t think the answer to rising healthcare costs is simply putting more people into the same system,” Tooker said. “The answer is controlling the cost of healthcare. Make what government already runs work better before making it bigger.”

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