Take Action

In spite of the pandemic, CCAG, in coalition with our state and national partners and Connecticut citizens, continues to take action on the planned issue agenda. Please join our email list and visit this page often for current actions and updates!

CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATORS

Check Your voting status

CLICK HERE FOR THE 2022 LEGISLATIVE WRAP UP

Share Your Health Care Story!

Are problems with your insurance stopping you from getting the care you need? Getting organized with the CT Citizen Action Group, and the national Care Over Cost campaign, can help.

Click here to share a basic overview of the issue(s) you are experiencing with your health insurance, and to learn about resources to help if you are experiencing a claims denial.

With our partner, People’s Action, we are collecting stories of claim denials to inform our work and to share with lawmakers. We will not share your story without your permission – but it’s important to make known how insurance companies are denying you care while asking for rate hikes.

We will also offer you state and local resources to help with any denied claims. This survey will remain open for the rest of the summer and fall

Share your story, learn about resources to challenge unfair claims denials, and help us challenge the commodification of health care!

This panel discussion featured community leaders and advocates working to protect sacred land and Gwich’in leadership working to protect the sacred coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from destructive and unwanted oil and gas development.

This was a free and family friendly event.

Click here for video!

Health insurance companies want to raise your rates. Tell them no!

Why CT residents should support obscene stock buybacks, profits and executive pay!

Insurance companies are seeking rate hikes averaging 20%.

The public may submit testimony until a decision is announced. You can submit testimony here.

And --- take CCAG's health care survey, which will also connect you with resources to help you with any denied claims.

The CT Insurance Department held a hearing Monday, August 15 to hear public input on the requests. CCAG greeted visitors entering the LOB with a reminder that Insurance Greed Kills. CCAG also testified, and several lawmakers cited information from our recent report, questioning CIGNA for CEO David Cordani's $91 million compensation in 2021 and for spending hundreds of millions buying back their own stock and enriching insiders.

CT-N's video of the hearing is here. CCAG Executive Director Tom Swan's testimony is here and and Associate Director Liz Dupont-Diehl's testimony is here. Tom points out how insurance companies blame hospitals and drug company prices to distract attention from their own cartel-like behavior - and that a new regulatory framework is needed to prevent this runaway greed detracting from our health.

Make sure to check out, and like and share, our posts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, calling out the outrageous amount of money being spent on executive pay, profits and stock buybacks.

A decision is expected in September.

Here is a sampling of coverage of the hearing:

Health Insurance Rate Hikes Focus of Public Meeting
NBC News, 8/15/22

State officials question insurance companies about proposed double-digit rate hikes
Fox 61 News, 8/15/22

Elected Officials Call on Insurance Regulators To Deny Rate Hikes
CT News Junkie, 8/13/22

Good Government Group Says Health Insurance Rate Hikes Are Not Justified
CT News Junkie, 8/13/22

Share your health care story!

Comment on PURA Low Income Electric Rate- Deadline to Submit 7/15/22

Send your comments before the July 15th deadline!

PURA has issued a Notice of Request for Written Comments on Docket No. 17-12-03RE11 PURA Investigation into Distribution System Planning of the Electric Distribution Companies - New Rate Design and Rates Review.

We need an equitable low-income discount rate of electricity as a critical part of a larger strategy to make energy more affordable for low-income, energy burdened households as Connecticut moves toward a cleaner and more efficient grid. Public comment is critical to accomplishing this. Find more information and send your comments here.

Claim your child tax credit!

The 2022 CT Child Tax Rebate, which was recently authorized by the Connecticut General Assembly and signed into law by Governor Ned Lamont is a one-time rebate that is intended to help Connecticut families with children.

To assist you in determining if you qualify for a child tax rebate, the Department of Revenue Services (“Department”) has developed this application , which will be available here through July 31, 2022.

If you have any questions concerning the 2022 Child Tax Rebate, we encourage you to visit the Department’s website at portal.ct.gov/DRS or call the Department, Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at 860-297-5999.

More to come - Travelers Championship Tournament 2022

For the last two years, CCAG has been urging Travelers to #InsureOurFuture and divest from fossil fuels.

We continue to be met with greenwashing and ineffective policies.

Travelers will be holding its annual Championship Golf Tournament in Cromwell from June 20-26. For the last two years, climate activists have protested at the event to raise awareness and keep holding the company accountable for its inaction.

We are doing it all again this year, too. Stay tuned for more information on how you can join us in June!

Rally For Climate: Travelers Company Annual Shareholder Meeting 5/25/22

Travelers claims to be a climate leader but it is one of the biggest oil & gas insurers in the world.

Thank you to everyone who joined CCAG, CT Sierra Club, Insure our Future CT Coalition and more at the Travelers annual shareholder meeting in Hartford with activists outside and inside the meeting urging the company stop greenwashing & take real action!

The results are in!

The first resolution asking Travelers to report on its' underwriting and investment emissions passed with 55% of the vote!
The second resolution proposing to end underwriting of all new fossil fuels unfortunately failed, but received 13% of the vote.

Learn more about Travelers Current policies here.
#InsureOurFuture

Education Equity & The American Rescue Plan

What does Education Equity look like for you, your family and your community?

With over $1.1 billion being sent to Connecticut schools from the federal government, our communities have an unprecedented opportunity to build back our schools better than ever!

The state of Connecticut is required to provide "meaningful consultation" with school communities, stakeholders and the public." Will you help us with this process?

We are interested in hearing how you would like these resources to be used in your community. Please visit https://bit.ly/ccagEEsurvey to take the survey.

Earth Day Climate Strike 4/22/22

As the climate crisis accelerates we need to see action at every level of government that is at the scale of the crisis we face, and centers around our state’s most vulnerable communities.

Thank you to everyone who participated on Earth Day! We demanded that Governor Lamont direct the CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to immediately stop permitting all new fossil fuel power plants.

We demanded he support the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation as they raise the following climate change concerns about shifts in suitable habitat for culturally significant species due to climate change; Climate change effects on culturally relevant species more broadly; Climate change effects on traditional food sources (Ex. through water chemistry and temperature changes); Climate change effects on traditional reliance and understanding from changing phenology; Climate change effects of higher temperatures on the health of the community, especially for members of the community with greater vulnerability; and mental health effects from ecological and cultural changes associated with climate change.

For more information about this and CCAG's other climate work, contact: Angel Serrano

Advocacy for a strong indoor air quality bill!

Thank you to everyone who joined CEA, CCAG and allies to demand action on S.B. 423, An Act Improving Indoor Air Quality in Public School Classrooms.

Because of your action this bill will establish school temperature and humidity limits and provide bond funding for remediation and installation of modern HVAC systems.

CT Climate Justice March Feb 8, 2022

Thank you to everyone who participated in the CT Climate Justice March on February 8th

Climate disruption is disproportionately harming the most vulnerable communities and stealing the future from our youth.

Yet, the Connecticut government and corporations are failing us on climate action. Join us as we plan to gather for a March in Hartford to amplify the voices of the most vulnerable communities and urge Connecticut to Lead on Climate.

The March was led by drummers with stops at Eversource (CT's largest utility), Travelers (the worst insurer for climate in the world), DEEP, and finishing at the State Capitol where the Governor and legislators kicked off the 2022 legislative session.

Our legislative demands can be found here.

Sponsors: Acadia Center, Blue Earth Compost, Collaborative Center for Justice, Congress of Community Colleges (4Cs), Connecticut Chapter Sierra, Club, Connecticut Citizen Action Group, Connecticut Clean Water Action , Connecticut Climate Crisis Mobilization (C3M), CT Coalition for Environmental & Economic Justice, CSEA SEIU Lcl 2001, Democracy4All, Drinking Liberally Meriden, Eastern Connecticut Green Action, Efficiency for All, Indivisible West Hartford, First Church in Windsor UCC, National Association of Social Workers, No More Dirty Power in Killingly, Recovery4All Coalition, Save the Sound, Sunrise Movement Connecticut, UAW Region9A, Unitarian Universalist Society East Sustainable Living Committee, Uconn Praxis, 350 CT

Connecticut's Five Families

Health insurance companies are making billions by denying you care.

Five of them sent a letter to Governor Lamont in April, threatening to move jobs out of Connecticut if we passed a Public Option. It worked, and the Public Option was scrapped in the final days of the 2021 session.

CCAG is investigating, and bringing you information you need about the greed and profiteering of these companies.

Our third report, Pandemic Profiteering: Making a Killing on COVID, finds that what these companies reported in profits, and spent on stock buybacks, could have funded the entire state of Connecticut for two years.

Our first report, on CEO compensation, showed that those five companies paid their CEOs $137.7 million in the last year. Our second, Games Insurers Play: How Low Will They Go?, explores the tactics and money spent in the 2021 legislative session. It shows that the industry, these Five Families, and dark money groups who don't disclose their donors spent at least $1.3 million lobbying in just six months.

By adding thousands of small businesses, nonprofits and individuals to the state's Partnership Plan, a Public Option would have offered affordable, quality coverage to tens of thousands of people. But it would have impeded the skyrocketing profits of the insurance industry. It's time our lawmakers listened to the people of Connecticut, rather than millionaire insurance executives.

Make sure to like, follow and share our new Five Families Facebook page, and click here to take action and sign up for updates.

Related News: No way to run a healthcare system. CT Viewpoints by Liz Dupont-Diehl- October 25, 2021

Coalitions

Renew New England Alliance

Friends, as you may know, we are proud members of the Renew New England Alliance, a coalition of grassroots organizers, racial justice organizations, labor unions, and frontline communities dedicated to winning a racial, economic, and climate justice across New England.

We are so glad to have you in this work with us. These are dark times, but there’s hope up ahead. Now, let's make sure this is the year we truly win power for our communities.

Insure Our Future

Please share the video far and wide to let insurance companies in CT know we are just getting started.

Retweet the video here
Share the video on Facebook here

As a state-wide organization, CCAG and our members have an unique opportunity to move major U.S. insurers out of fossil fuels, and into a sustainable future.

Local climate activists have stepped up over this past year to call these destructive practices out. View the video to see what together, we've accomplished recently.

Together we have made it very clear to companies Travelers Insurance, The Hartford, and WR Berkley we are out of time.

Want to take action with the campaign in the future?
Join the CT IOF email list to be kept up to date on these and other issues and actions.

These companies must stop insuring fossil fuels in order to #InsureOurFuture. Let's make sure they know we are ready to hold them accountable.

CCAG's Fairfield County Organizing Collaborative is on the Move

Taking Action on Housing, Health Care & Climate Change.

CCAG members, friends and neighbors are joining together to educate, engage and take action on the fight for quality, affordable health care - pushing CT to take bold, aggressive action to fight our climate emergency - and working with Fairfield County allies to demand affordable accessible housing for ALL people in this state.

Interested in finding out more? Contact Bill Collins at 9collins@optonline.net or 203.846.1109

Connect the Dollars Project (CDP)

CONNECT THE DOLLARS PROJECT (CDP) is a collaboration of Common Cause in CT and CT Citizen Action Group to expose attempts to buy our state.

Connecticut super PACs, which can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to support or oppose electoral candidates, are being used as a tool for a handful of wealthy individuals, lobbying organizations, and businesses to buy our elections to serve their interests. A massive influx of millions of dollars in super PAC donations thus far in 2018 — more than half of it from out-of-state interests — drowns out the voices of Connecticut citizens and candidates, undermines the goals of Connecticut’s strong campaign finance laws, and damages public confidence in the integrity of our election system.

Who is Buying Our Elections? A Pre-Election Guide to Connecticut Super PACS
Download the guide

Connecticut Republicans Maintain Huge Advantage in Super PAC Money: party_pac_report_rev._10-31-18.pdf
Download File

Read the Executive Summary here.

Like & Share the CDP Faceboook page to follow the money and connect the dollars!

2021 Cycle4CT Bicycle Ride to Fight Climate Change

Thank you to everyone who participated in and supported the 2021 Cycle4CT ride to fight climate change!

Enjoy the photos sent in from challengers who participated in Connecticut and from as far away as Maine & Omaha.

Join our email list and/or watch this page for exciting updates about Cycle4CT 2022 tentatively scheduled for Oct. 15th & 16th! Together we can save our planet one revolution at a time!

CLICK HERE TO CONTRIBUTE