Universal health care's bumpy ride in Connecticut

The need for health-care reform is so urgent and so important to all in our society that it is not something that should be defined by partisanship. But that is just what happened in the state Legislature Wednesday, May 20, when the House of Representatives voted on two bills addressing health-care issues for Connecticut. The Democrats, who sponsored the bills, voted largely in favor of them, and Republicans voted mostly against them. Herein lies one of the reasons it’s so difficult to find real solutions for real problems in the current climate of partisan polarization.

Since the Democrats have the majority in the House, after hours of debate lasting from 12:30 to 10:30 p.m., according to The Hartford Courant, the bills passed, one by a vote of 107-35, the other with all 37 Republicans voting against it and most Democrats voting in favor. Gov. M. Jodi Rell, however, a Republican, could take the opportunity to veto the bills and stymie this expanded reform of the state’s health-care system.

The universal health-care bill is not one favored by Rell, who has supported the Charter Oak health-care plan adopted by the state in June 2008. Charter Oak, however, has had its own problems, with few hospitals taking on the expense of working with the plan, making it a difficult delivery system for those Connecticut residents who have bought into it.

If both bills pass the Senate, an unlikely event that the state can only hope may happen, and the governor approves the bills, there could be good reason for optimism in looking forward to the future of health care in our state.

One bill creates an insurance structure that is based on universal health care, creating a public pool for coverage which is open to all, whether or not they have pre-existing conditions. This bill would allow for those state residents currently without health-care benefits to have the opportunity to buy into the new plan, and would create a system that would be competitive with private insurers’ plans. While it will be expensive for the state, any plan to address this problem will be costly, and now could be the ideal time to apply for federal money as the Obama administration has made health-care reform a top priority. This could be the right kind of program to qualify for stimulus funding this year.

The second bill allows municipal employees, as well as workers at nonprofit organizations and businesses with fewer than 50 employees, to enter into the insurance pool of about 200,000 current state employees. This solves a major problem for towns and cities that are struggling to provide high-cost benefits to their employees. In this time of major budget cuts, municipalities need to find every chance they can to save money. All the better if they can provide better benefit packages for their employees while saving money because of increased economies of scale.

Additionally, businesses large and small have struggled to pay for spiraling health-care costs, before the current recession and now even more so. If those businesses with fewer than 50 employees could offer better benefits at a better price, it may help some of them stay in business longer and stay in our state, which has such high general operating costs.

Let’s hope our legislators and governor can put aside partisan interests and put the needs of their constituents first, passing these bills to take Connecticut on the road to real reform in health-care coverage.