Government-run health care 'pooling' bill dies in committee; still time for real reform

(May 25, 2007) Another proposal to push Connecticut toward a state-run health care system died this week when the legislature’s Planning and Development Committee didn’t take action on HB-7396, effectively killing the bill. Last week, another government-run health care bill, SB-1371, met a similar fate in the Finance Committee.

HB-7396 would have started to pave the way toward a statewide, government-run health care system by forcing all of Connecticut’s cities and towns to participate in a state-run health insurance purchasing pool.

Health care pooling bills such as this operate under the false assumption that the larger the purchasing pool, the lower the costs will be. But because so many aspects of medical care today are very expensive and growing more so, the creation of large purchasing pools by themselves would do nothing to lower those costs.

Bills such as HB-7396 also could usher the state toward a future, single-payer health care system that would have state government making all of the health care purchasing decisions for all Connecticut residents.

But single-payer, government run health care systems also would do nothing to reduce the costs of health care and actually would be inefficient, innovation-stunting and financially unsustainable.

Instead, lawmakers this year can still take several practical steps that will strengthen the state’s current model system of employer-based health insurance, as recommended by a coalition of Connecticut’s businesses, hospitals and health insurers.

These steps include:
• Increasing reimbursements to health care providers under HUSKY and other state programs
• Expanding Medicaid and vigorously increase enrollment of children in HUSKY
• Creating new, refundable tax credits and/or premium subsidies to encourage small businesses to provide health insurance, and to support the costs to individuals of participating in employer-based plans or purchasing individual coverage
• Paving the way to permit HUSKY individuals to enroll into employer-based coverage using state and federal dollars
• Creating a Commission on Healthy Lifestyles to promote healthy lifestyles and wellness programs
• Making more health care cost and quality information available to consumers, develop evidence-based standards of care and practice guidelines, and promote the wider use of electronic medical record technology

Funding for these initiatives can and should be found within existing state and federal resources.
Health care reform measures that focus on these core principles will go a long way towards reducing health care costs, improving quality and increasing access to health insurance.

That would be a far more productive path to follow than trying to reengineer Connecticut’s employer-based health care system into a new, state-run bureaucracy.

For more information, contact CBIA’s Eric George at 860-244-1921 or georgee@cbia.com. n

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