| Big health care plan too costly for Connecticut, needs positive steps
Leaders of HealthFirst CT Authority promote agenda
(Oct. 9, 2008) Raising taxes on employers and expanding state government’s role in health care are both parts of a plan being promoted this month by leaders of a group charged with mapping out Connecticut’s health care future. However, the plan they’re presenting doesn’t yet have the approval of the entire group, The HealthFirst Connecticut Authority.
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Still, the authority’s leaders are travelling across the state to describe what they believe Connecticut’s health care systems should become. Among other things, their health care vision would:
• Impose a new state health care tax on employers
• Create a new state agency with broad powers to administer health care
• Form a pooling scheme to expand the very expensive state employee plan (a proposal vetoed by the governor last session)
The plan expands state government, increases costs and raises taxes. It’s just too costly for health care consumers, taxpayers and Connecticut’s economy.
Also, the plan would open the door to a government-run health care system in Connecticut — something that’s unaffordable even in a stronger economy.
Positive steps
On the other hand, the authority can still approve other ideas the entire group agrees will improve health care in Connecticut, including:
• Increasing Medicaid reimbursements to reduce the massive cost-shift from the public sector to the private sector
• Placing a greater emphasis on transparency, data collection and chronic disease management to improve medical outcomes and the state’s health status
• Promoting the use of electronic medical records to improve quality and reduce cost
• Emphasizing value-based health care so that health plans are tailored to best influence healthy and medically-prudent behaviors from patients and doctors
The future of Connecticut's health care system is important, as is the health of its economy. Decisions regarding health care policy should be given careful consideration, with the impact on our economy weighing heavily in those determinations.
For more information, contact CBIA’s Eric George at 860-244-1921 or eric.george@cbia.com.
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