The state”™s largest business trade group is scratching its head on why it was not included on a panel that will recommend measures to improve health-care access.
In June, the Connecticut General Assembly passed a bill to increase Medicaid reimbursements for physicians and hospitals, along with measures to broaden eligibility for the state”™s HUSKY health-care program for low-income families.
The bill creates a HealthFirst Connecticut Authority to find alternatives for affordable health-care coverage for people lacking insurance, as well as cost-containment measures.
The panel has until December 2008 to make recommendations.
Separately the new law also authorized a Statewide Primary Care Authority to develop a universal system for providing primary-care services, including prescription drugs, to all Connecticut residents.
The HealthFirst Connecticut Authority has designated representatives for small and large businesses, but conspicuously absent from the panelist roster is the Connecticut Business & Industry Association.
In addition to lobbying in Hartford on behalf of its 10,000 members, CBIA brings the added expertise of running its own group insurance plans.
“We were interested in having a seat on the authority,” said Eric George, a CBIA associate counsel. “We”™ll be following it very closely ”¦ If there is some part we can take in it, that would be terrific.”
Connecticut Voices for Children was named to the panel to represent businesses that have fewer than 50 employees, despite the New Haven organization not mentioning business interests anywhere in its mission statement. Voices for Children”™s board includes one corporate officer: Peter Arakas, an executive at Lego Corp.”™s Enfield office.
Pond House Café, a banquet facility in West Hartford, was added to the authority to represent larger businesses.
Other panelists include:
Ӣ Community Health Center in Manchester, representing community-based health clinics;
Ӣ Hospital of St. Raphael in New Haven, representing health-care providers;
Ӣ Stamford Hospital, representing hospitals;
Ӣ Connecticut Citizen Action Group, representing consumers;
Ӣ ConnectiCare, representing insurers;
Ӣ An unnamed health-care quality or patient-safety advocate;
Ӣ An unnamed labor union, representing employee interests; and
Ӣ Lt. Gov. Mike Fedele, who as president of Stamford-based Pinnacle Group represents information technology companies.
George said the business community is fearful that some members of the commission will agitate for a government-run, single-payer system.
Whatever the findings of the yearlong HealthFirst study, there is no disputing that businesses continue to express frustration with the cost of health insurance. Half of businesses polled last spring by CBIA stated health-care benefits are the most significant cost related to doing business in Connecticut. And in a study published by the journal Health Affairs last month, Connecticut trailed only Massachusetts, Maine, New York and Alaska for the highest per-capita spending on health care.
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