As the Obama administration and Congress considered a federal mandate to require many employers to offer their workers health insurance coverage, Connecticut companies awaited action on whether the state would enact its own far-reaching legislation to reform the insurance system.
The Connecticut General Assembly approved a proposed SustiNet insurance plan in May, sending the bill to Gov. M. Jodi Rell who at deadline had yet to act on the bill. The Assembly passed a separate bill mandating that insurance carriers cover member costs for the treatment of autism. While school districts provide services during the school year, a gap in coverage can exist during the summer months, leaving families the choice of picking up the tab or forgoing services.
The legislature and governor failed to agree on a budget by the close of the scheduled session. The Assembly is going into a special session in an attempt to finalize a budget by the close of the fiscal year June 30. Rell has spent the past several weeks exchanging barbs with Democrats in the state legislature, who have the votes to override a Rell veto if they can line up party support. A Democratic bid to mandate paid sick leave died in the Connecticut Senate, however, casting doubt on whether the appetite exists to increase burdens on employers as the economy finally shows signs of improving.
“We are seeing some signs out there that are a little bit more positive in the economy right now,” said Peter Gioia, vice president and economist with the Connecticut Business and Industry Association. “We may well be through the worst of this.”
SustiNet would convert the state insurance plan to a self-funded mechanism and allow small businesses to join, in theory reducing premiums due to the increased buying power the plan could wield along with the ability to spread health costs out among a larger and more stable group of members.
First promoted by the New Haven-based Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, SustiNet has won powerful allies like AARP, and influential opponents such as the CBIA, which warns the plan would raise the cost of state government and so possibly taxes as well.
Rell vetoed a similar proposal last year, but at the time said she was open to reconsidering a version of the plan. Given the state”™s budget constraints, however, Rell has vowed to veto bills that would send the state further into the red.
“Tax increases are the easy choice, but all they do is feed the beast and two years later the beast is back, hungry again, and always a little bit larger,” Rell said, in one such volley in early June. “Now is the time to make the difficult decisions.”
In late May, the New Haven-based Connecticut Health Policy Project published an analysis of Rell”™s budget and its impact on health care, stating it would result in a roughly $50 million reduction in the HUSKY program for uninsured children and their families achieved through negotiating lower rates with insurers and providers.
The state debate may be just a hiccup compared with the coming federal efforts at health reform, which some skeptics are already dubbing “Obamacare.” The president devoted his weekly radio address June 6 to the topic, under which he is considering pushing for a mandate on some employers to offer insurance, not unlike in Massachusetts; and a broad, publicly funded health plan as is being pushed by the Connecticut General Assembly.
The Main Street Alliance, a group representing small-business owners on the topic of health-care reform with affiliates in New York and New Jersey, has supported the push toward a federal plan.
