Connecticut Activists Prepare Health Care Reform Proposal

A major activist foundation is about to launch the most ambitious proposal yet for health care reform in Connecticut, envisioning a mammoth insurance pool and changes in the way medical care is delivered.

The proposal by Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut sets the stage for the 2009 General Assembly, where many reform ideas are expected. The plan also comes as Congress and President-elect Barack Obama begin moving on health care reform.

The proposal by the foundation, an influential advocacy group for expanded health coverage, aims to lower health care costs and make insurance more affordable. But it isn't all new, sharing many concepts with current national proposals and past state attempts.

Its breadth, though, promises to raise a lively debate in the legislative session that starts Jan. 7, and sounds an opening theme: A comprehensive approach to reform is needed, and it must not be eclipsed by the nation's financial crisis.

"Health care is a major piece of infrastructure for our economy," said Juan A. Figueroa, president of the foundation. "You can't fix the economy without fixing health care when it's 16 percent of your [gross domestic product]."

States shouldn't just defer to federal reform efforts, he warned.

"Connecticut cannot sit on the sidelines on this issue," Figueroa said. "The fact that we're known as the insurance capital in the country, whatever we say or do ... ought to be part of what gets factored into the national debate."

Competition For Insurers
The foundation's proposal, being previewed on a five-stop road tour that begins today in Torrington, would greatly expand the state employees' health plan. Over six years, the state employees' plan would eventually be opened to individuals, nonprofit groups, municipalities, small employers, and later, to any size employer and would encompass state programs, including Medicaid and the HUSKY health plan.

The expanded pool is aimed at roughly 326,000 uninsured residents and people whose insurance is skimpy or who can no longer afford their employer's coverage. Workers whose health care costs exceed a certain percentage of their income, for instance, would be candidates for the pool, said Janet Davenport, the foundation's vice president for communications.

"Those with cut-rate health plans will have an opportunity to escape high deductibles, rising co-pays and inadequate coverage," Davenport said.

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