Public Hearing on State-Run Healthcare Plan Monday

A bill to establish a state-run public healthcare option (HB-6305, An Act Concerning Implementation of the SustiNet Plan) will be the subject of a joint public hearing of the legislature’s Insurance, Public Health and Human Services committees on Monday, February 14  at 11 a.m. in Room 2C of the Legislative Office Building in Hartford.

Businesses are concerned about many aspects of the plan, called SustiNet, including the cost of creating a new government bureaucracy at a time of severe state budget deficits and long-term debt.

SustiNet will be heavily dependent on federal subsidies, which is another big question mark as healthcare reform continues to come under heavy scrutiny in the courts and in Congress. And the plan ultimately would put the state in competition with the private-sector insurance marketplace in Connecticut which provides thousands of good jobs in the state.

Commonsense healthcare reform comes not from handing control of the system to state government, but from policymakers working to strengthen our market-based, employer-sponsored system by reducing healthcare costs, increasing access to health coverage, and improving the quality of care.