Gov. Malloy and Democratic leaders in the General Assembly have reached a deal on SustiNet that apparently retains the health care plan”™s branded name but is much different from the original proposal.
As originally envisioned, SustiNet (HB 6305) would have created a first-in-the-nation health insurance public option, dramatically and expensively expanding government control over health care in Connecticut. In a recent editorial Malloy”™s administration cited the massive costs of SustiNet (between $4 million and $6 million annually to operate, and at least $250 million to $478 million annually for the portions of the bill that have been priced). They also pointed out that it would be run by an authority with almost no accountability to the state or its taxpayers as another reason the plan should be rejected.
According to reports on the legislative deal, what is now called SustiNet will be something very different. It will open the state employee health plan to cities, towns and nonprofits, but not to such groups as small private businesses, as did the original pooling proposal.
There is still sizable financial risk associated with expanding the self-insured state employee plan to different groups, but the fact that the private sector will not be involved in the revised SustiNet plan will reduce this risk measurably.
All said, the deal struck by Malloy and Democratic legislators and the changes they”™ve made are a significant improvement.
CBIA agrees with Malloy, who, when explaining his concerns with SustiNet, said the state needs to focus on real health reform and work diligently toward implementing federal health reform changes.
Connecticut needs true, commonsense health care reform that comes not from giving more control to state government but from strengthening the state”™s market-based, employer-sponsored system. Reducing costs, increasing access to health insurance and improving the quality of care are the keys to true reform.
We appreciate Malloy”™s position in identifying the significant problems with SustiNet while holding true to his goal of real health care reform, which he correctly sees federal reform as addressing.
Eric George is associate counsel at the Connecticut Business and Industry Association in Hartford. Reach him at eric.george@cbia.com.
Too bad Mr. George fails to disclose the entire truth (again). CBIA’s opposition comes from no other reason than SustiNet would compete with the insurance products CBIA sells to small business.
CBIA knows the products they offer can’t compete with a quality, affordable, nonprofit option.
The Governor has no plans for health care-
the decision to gut Sustinet- to further enrich the Insurance companies and a failure of 40 years of Market priced health care is a huge mark against him.
What does the Governor tell the 400,000 people in CT without health care- and the few hundred thousand more with poor coverage?
I need to maintain the gross profit margins of Aetna and Cigna- and allow their CEO’s 30-40 million dollar salaries a year?
Malloy is garbage.