From the President

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Commonsense health care reforms

By John R. Rathgeber

CBIA President and CEO

CBIA recently debuted a video in which business and health care executives discuss the direction health care reform should take in our state and the potential impact a government-run system could have on our economy.

We produced the video because of concerns about the recommendations a state health care reform task force might make to the legislature next year. The group includes advocates of a taxpayer-funded, state-run system.

Such a system would be a huge mistake. For one thing, it would not address the main problem: costs. That’s the greatest barrier for employers to provide health insurance and for individuals to select coverage. Implementing a state-run system could cost taxpayers about $17 billion, according to the legislature’s Office of Fiscal Analysis. Besides that, the state has not cost-effectively managed its own health care programs for state employees, retirees and Medicaid recipients. And eliminating the role of private health insurers would devastate a key segment of Connecticut’s economy.

Fixing problems in the employer-based system is the only sensible approach. For one thing, that system now covers about 64% of state residents. (About 9% of the population is uninsured; the remainder have Medicare, Medicaid or individual coverage.) Policymakers should strengthen the current system by promoting healthy lifestyles to avoid preventable diseases. They should take steps to reduce costs — for example, by avoiding unnecessary medical testing — and improve health care quality — for instance, by using technology to prevent medical errors and ensure that people receive appropriate care. And the state needs to find a way to cover people who are now uninsured; it can do that by helping employers offer coverage and enrolling all eligible people in public programs.

I hope you will watch our 10-minute video, “Health Care Reform: A Common Sense Approach.” Feel free to post a link to it on your own Web site and share it with your employees, vendors, customers and anyone else who has a stake in the outcome of health care reform.