As the health care reform debate passed to the U.S. Senate, Connecticut”™s largest business trade group cautioned against a “death spiral” in one attorney”™s words that threatens the health of small businesses even while providing insurance universally to all Americans.
On Nov. 7, the U.S. House of Representatives passed by a slim margin the Affordable Health Care for Americans Act, with Connecticut”™s five representatives, all Democrats, voting in favor of the bill.
The bill was passed even as a commission in Connecticut began convening committees to cobble together its own near-universal health option supported by some small businesses, dubbed SustiNet and promising to provide relatively low-cost insurance while helping lower overall premiums by cutting costs in the health care system through a range of initiatives.
And it comes as the state”™s 2010 gubernatorial race was thrown wide open with Gov. M. Jodi Rell”™s announcement she would not seek reelection next year.
On November 18, the Connecticut Business & Industry Association scheduled a summit to address the myriad policy changes in store at the state and federal level.
“Initially we saw a strong push and then it died down after all the town meetings across the country, but there”™s been a new resurgence for the government really to take on a lot more responsibility in controlling our health care system under the so-called public option,” said Eric George, a CBIA attorney who tracks health care policy, in a review of the bill posted on the group”™s web site. “At this point in time, it is really impossible to say exactly how they are going to come out; however but it does seem that strong consideration is being given to a public option, and businesses really should be concerned about this concerning government”™s track record in this. We have seen underfunding that has shifted a huge amount of costs to businesses, to the tune of $300 million in Connecticut alone.
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“There is either going to be a straight up tax on companies depending upon their payroll or how they are providing their health care coverage, or they are at least going to have to pay back subsidies that their employees may receive to pay for health insurance,” George added. “Where it turns out is going to be impossible to determine at this point in time, especially since the deadline keeps getting pushed back. What we don”™t need is to increase costs on businesses and individuals that are already struggling. If we do that, we are going to go into a death spiral.”
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Democrats, however, see that burden as paling next to the one shouldered by families unable to afford or otherwise procure insurance coverage. In remarks on the House floor Nov. 6, Rep. Jim Himes of Greenwich said he had attended more than 60 town-hall style meetings in lower Fairfield County addressing health care reform.
“When this bill passes, our small businesses, our nonprofits and our mayors will no longer watch as exploding health care costs devastate their budgets,” Himes said. “Is this bill perfect? No. Very little of what we do in this House is perfect. But in this, of all things, we cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”
As is the case with a landmark law in Massachusetts in 2006, the federal bill would require consumers to get insurance and employers to provide it, while providing assistance for low-income families and small businesses.
The law would also create a health insurance exchange to help consumers choose a plan, a measure both Connecticut and New York are considering at the state level.
“The bill is the most important health legislation to pass since Medicare and Medicaid were created in 1965,” said Ellen Andrews, executive director of the Connecticut Health Policy Project, in a blog analyzing the new bill.
The legislative tussle now passes to the U.S. Senate, with independent Sen. Joseph Lieberman expected to play a key role, along with Maine Sens. Olympia Snow and Susan Collins, both moderate Republicans.
Lieberman has threatened to join U.S. Senate Republicans in an attempted filibuster if a vote looms on a health care reform bill that includes a publicly financed insurance option. Abortion financing remains another powder keg among social conservatives.
