Health care reform ahead, but state’s direction troubling
(Sept. 26, 2007) Reforming the health care system is a topic under scrutiny both at the state and federal levels this fall as lawmakers search for solutions on how to provide quality, affordable care for more people.
CBIA recently participated on a panel of public officials and business and industry leaders, convened by U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman in Hartford, to discuss ideas for health care reform. The senator said the group’s suggestions would help him craft legislation he plans to introduce in the Senate.
“Joe Lieberman is reaching out to the business community and other health care stakeholders, and asking, ‘What suggestions do you have for reforming our country’s health care system?’” says Bonnie Stewart, CBIA’s vice president for government affairs. “That’s a balanced way to go about it.”
However, the business community is less confident about the direction a new state health care reform panel the legislature created this year could take.
Public Act 07-185, as amended by PA 07-2 during the legislature’s June special session, established the HealthFirst Connecticut Authority and called for it to explore policy alternatives for providing quality, affordable and sustainable health care, including a potential statewide, single-payer health care system.
It’s possible that some members of the authority will recommend that the state replace its current employer-sponsored system with a government-run, single-payer system.
While there are problems with the state’s current system, a government-run system would fail to reduce costs, which are the biggest problem affecting access to care. CBIA believes that any health reform effort should be a comprehensive plan to control costs and expand access to quality, employer-based health benefits.
During the session, a legislative study showed that a single-payer, government-run system would be phenomenally expensive for the state (matching the state’s entire $17.5 billion budget). Lawmakers this year eventually approved several beneficial reforms, including many proposed by the business community, in an omnibus health care reform bill, but fell short of approving a government-run system.
A single-payer system is just one of several alternatives, including building on our employer-sponsored health insurance system, that the HealthFirst Connecticut Authority is supposed to study and report on to the legislature.
The authority will be composed of representatives of:
• Businesses with fewer than 50 employees — from the advocacy group Voices for Children
• Larger businesses — from the Pond House Cafe in Hartford
• A health care quality or patient safety advocate — the deputy commissioner of public health
• People with community-based health care experience — from Community Health Center in Manchester
• Health care providers — an executive from the Hospital of St. Raphael in New Haven
• Labor unions — to be named
• Hospitals — a Stamford Hospital executive
• Consumers — a representative of the Connecticut Citizen Action Group
• Insurers — the CEO of ConnectiCare
• Information technology experience — the lieutenant governor
The authority also has several nonvoting members.
For more information, contact CBIA’s Eric George at 860-244-1921 or georgee@cbia.com.
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