As a new state program to enroll residents in health insurance picks up steam, new U.S. Census Bureau data shows that Connecticut had the fourth sharpest drop in the nation the past two years in the percentage of people lacking insurance.
Uninsured residents are an indirect but significant driver of premiums for other people who pay for insurance ”“ and the companies that employ them. People lacking insurance push up health care costs by avoiding physician visits to take care of ailments early on, and tend to use emergency room services which are more expensive for hospitals to maintain.
It is not all good news, according to the Connecticut Health Policy Project, which notes that most of the two-year drop occurred in 2006, and that the number of people lacking insurance in Connecticut are more than the combined populations of Hartford, New Haven, Middletown and New London.
The group expects health insurance premiums to climb 8 percent next year. It also notes that the increase in the number of people in Connecticut buying insurance directly is now equal to the number of people without insurance.
“Anyone who has shopped lately for insurance, especially here in Connecticut, knows how expensive it is,” said Ellen Andrews, executive director of the Connecticut Health Policy Project, in a Web log assessing the Census estimates. “Purchasers in Connecticut”™s small-group market have several protections under state law including ”¦ spreading costs over a larger group; guaranteed issue and (renewal); and the Insurance Department has to approve rate increases in the small-group market. None of these protections apply in the individual market, but they could.”
Andrews added that as part of its ballyhooed health-insurance mandate under way, Massachusetts merged its individual and small-group markets, a move officials estimate will save individual buyers 15 percent, at a cost to small groups of at least 1 percent.
Even that small amount would put additional pressure on cash-strapped small businesses. According to a survey by American Express, the number of businesses nationally that do not offer health insurance climbed from 29 percent a year ago to 34 percent in June. Just one in 10 survey respondents indicated they have asked employees to take on a greater share of health care premiums ”“ Connecticut residents enjoy one of the best percentage shares in the nation, with companies here shouldering a disproportionate share of costs.
The Connecticut Small Employer Health Reinsurance Pool also offers special health care plans as a lower-cost coverage option for small employers that do not provide insurance for their workers. Such businesses can purchase the plan if they did not offer coverage to employees at any point over the trailing year, but can only take advantage of the plan for three years.
In a bid to offer residents affordable insurance for direct purchase, particularly young workers with families, in July the state began accepting applications for the Charter Oak Health Plan, through which it has negotiated relatively low-premium plans that feature stripped down benefit packages.
Health care providers have been slow to accept the plan for services rendered, but Greenwich Hospital and Bridgeport Hospital have done so, and in late August Gov. M. Jodi Rell announced 13 health clinics across the state are following suit, including Norwalk Community Health Center and the Bridgeport clinics Optimus Healthcare and the Southwest Community Health Center.
After vetoing a Connecticut General Assembly bill to open a state employee insurance pool to small businesses, Rell indicated she would consider any new version of the plan in the upcoming legislative session that commences next January.
