Finance Committee approves
government-run health care system

(May 11, 2007) Defeat of one of the four government-run health care proposals in the legislature this year seemed likely this week, but the Finance Committee avoided that possibility by quickly removing the bill’s primary funding mechanism – an 11% payroll tax.

Minus a way to pay for it, HB-7314 was then approved on a straight party line vote, with committee Democrats supporting and Republicans opposing.

Now, the bill is nearly identical to its equally costly Senate counterpart (SB-1371). According to the legislature’s Office of Fiscal Analysis, the cost of establishing a government-run health care system would be between $11.8 billion and $18 billion.

Aside from the government-run, single-payer systems threatened in HB-7314 and SB-1371, two other bills (HB-7320 and HB-7396) are still alive and would establish government — run, statewide health insurance purchasing pools that would operate outside of the state’s favorable small group health insurance rating laws. And that would create the infrastructure for a future single-payer system.

Ultimately, all of these bills would set the stage for an unaffordable health insurance system with as many, if not more, problems than the current system.

This is because creating a new costly state bureaucracy won’t address any of the problems facing Connecticut’s health care system. Such a bureaucracy would:
• Do nothing to control escalating health care costs
• Routinely result in long waits for medical services and the rationing of health care
• Discourage health care innovation, thereby negatively affecting quality

If health care reform is to be successful, any changes to the current system must address the problems the state’s businesses and residents face with access, quality and affordability of care.

Rather than discard Connecticut’s current health care system, lawmakers should improve the system by adopting the proposals of Connecticut’s employer community, hospitals and health insurance carriers.

For more information about the coalition’s health care proposals, visit cbia.com/gov, or contact CBIA’s Eric George at 860-244-1921 or georgee@cbia.com.

CBIA Action Center

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