With Democrats unable to push through universal health coverage in Connecticut with a member of their own party occupying the governor”™s office, party leaders instead settled for a watered down version of SustiNet.
The program aims to cut health care costs in part by opening up the pool covering state workers to municipalities and some nonprofits.
Conceived by the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, SustiNet”™s original aims were to create a near-universal health care plan with the state underwriting policies for those who could not obtain insurance in the private market.
That idea failed to win the backing of new Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who like his predecessor M. Jodi Rell warned the state could not afford to take on the expense and uncertainty of a major new health plan.
While some groups like the Connecticut Business and Industry Association have fought the concept as a near-guarantee on higher taxes in the future, and so fewer jobs, some small businesses aghast at soaring insurance rates have backed the bill.
Malloy did not include SustiNet on the short-list of legislative accomplishments he cited in a speech to members of the Connecticut General Assembly in early June.
Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman, who as Connecticut comptroller until this year preached austere spending given the realities of the state budget, co-chaired a task force to implement SustiNet along with Kevin Lembo, who himself replaced Wyman as comptroller this year having previously been the state”™s health care advocate.
As they mulled the final iteration of SustiNet this spring, legislators in the Connecticut General Assembly saved their longest question-and-answer session for Lembo, who made clear in time he still hopes to see a public insurance option, without providing specifics on what impact that could have on the budget.
“I think of SustiNet ”¦ as a bunch of building blocks that we can sequence in a way that makes sense, and then test as we go along,” Lembo said. “The first ones, I”™m hoping, are largely non-controversial.”
Lembo held out hope the state would eventually create a public option for buying health insurance through SustiNet, perhaps even by 2014 when a new state health insurance exchange kicks into effect as a central market for buyers and sellers of insurance.
In addition to creating a watered down version of SustiNet, the Connecticut General Assembly opened the health plan that covers state employees to municipalities and some nonprofits, with SustiNet”™s original plan calling for small businesses to gain access to that pool as well. By allowing access, the theory is that the larger base of insured members will help iron out swings in rates and create economies of scale in purchasing.
For instance, Darien”™s rate renewal spiked 47 percent last year, according to Ray Rossomando, legislative coordinator for the Connecticut Education Association, which has some 40,000 members statewide.
“All across the state, you”™re dealing with large increases from year to year, and a volatility that is very difficult and very disruptive to people who have to deal with it,” Rossomando said. “We think pooling is a very important aspect, because it addresses the volatility and it helps us to address rates and to get the efficiencies of scale that pooling would do.”
