Hospitals in Connecticut were expecting a tax cut this year but Lamont has proposed taxing them at existing levels as part of his plan to close the budget deficit. Under a complicated arrangement, the state taxes hospitals, receives money from Medicaid and returns some of that money to the hospitals. Lamont’s budget would freeze the tax at the current $900 million per year and give the industry back $453 million — $43 million less than it receives now. That would leave hospitals out $447 million annually. A separate proposal, to reign in state employee and retiree health care costs, would negotiate a maximum rate state government would pay for services at hospitals, clinics and other providers, so the state “doesn’t pay $24,000 for a knee replacement at one hospital and $50,000 for the same procedure at another hospital.”