Newspaper Article
Hartford Courant - July 9, 2010
In a high-stakes, big-money battle, Republican gubernatorial front runner Tom Foley filed court papers Friday to block the payment of more than $2 million in public money to the campaign of Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele and his running mate, Mark Boughton.
A judge did not grant an injunction in the case, and a hearing has been set for 2 p.m. Monday in civil court on Washington Street in Hartford.
The court filing prompted an angry response from the Fedele campaign, saying that Foley was trying to change the subject because he has been in the news lately for two arrests years ago.
"I think Mr. Foley's action today is baseless. It's a political ploy,'' Fedele spokesman Christopher Cooper told Capitol Watch. "He's looking to change the subject. If he can't win by campaigning, he'll try to win by suing. ... It's an instance in which Tom Foley shows he thinks he's above the law. It's nothing more than a delay tactic and a political tactic.''
New Britain Herald - May 24, 2010
HARTFORD — The sweeping financial reforms championed in Washington by U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd are designed to protect consumers, but also to spur the economy through building confidence in the banking industry, Dodd said Monday.
“Never, ever, again,” should American taxpayers be asked to bail out a financial institution, said Dodd. Without confidence in the financial industry, “the damage is incalculable.”
Connecticut Mirror - Wednesday May 5, 2010
Mark Pazniokas
May 5, 2010
The House gave final legislative approval at 6:01 a.m. today to a bill that subsidizes solar power, encourages energy efficiency and exerts influence over a deregulated electric industry that has given Connecticut the nation's second-highest electric rates.
The most heavily lobbied bill of year was passed 20 to 14 in the Senate on Tuesday night and 81 to 40 in the House as the sun rose over the State Capitol today, the final day of the 2010 session.
Gov. M. Jodi Rell has expressed opposition, but environmentalists urged her to sign a bill that encourages the consolidation of energy functions in one department, an idea proposed by Rell in 2007.
"This bill is an important first step in addressing a broken energy infrastructure, and a way for the state to move towards cleaner energy and a stronger economy," said Charles Rothenberger, a staff attorney for the Connecticut Fund for the Environment.
Connecticut Mirror - Friday April 30, 2010
Mark Pazniokas
April 30, 2010
A thaw in one of the General Assembly's chilliest relationships has produced a sweeping, 11th-hour proposal to overhaul Connecticut's electric regulatory structure and subsidize solar energy.
Setting aside three years of conflict, Sen. John W. Fonfara, D-Hartford, and Rep. Vickie O. Nardello, D-Prospect, are collaborating on what could be the biggest energy bill since deregulation in 1998.
The two co-chairs of the Energy and Technology Committee circulated drafts of their legislation this week, setting off a scramble by industry and environmental groups.
"It's getting everyone in this building in a frenzy," said Sen. Kevin D. Witkos, R-Canton, the ranking Republican on the committee. "This is huge, and it never had a public hearing."
And the bill is unfinished.
We beat the insurance companies, and now the Affordable Health Care for America Act is the law of the land:
With the stroke of President Obama’s pen, his health care overhaul — the most sweeping social legislation enacted in decades — became law on Tuesday.
[...]
The landmark bill, passed by the House on Sunday night by a vote of 219-212, will provide coverage to an estimated 30 million people who currently lack it.
While some of the benefits of the reform legislation will be phased in over the next few years, there are some benefits of the bill that will take effect immediately:
- Insurance companies will be barred from dropping people from coverage when they get sick. Lifetime coverage limits will be eliminated and annual limits are to be restricted.
- Insurers will be barred from excluding children for coverage because of pre-existing conditions.
- Young adults will be able to stay on their parents' health plans until the age of 26. Many health plans currently drop dependents from coverage when they turn 19 or finish college.
- Uninsured adults with a pre-existing conditions will be able to obtain health coverage through a new program that will expire once new insurance exchanges begin operating in 2014.
- A temporary reinsurance program is created to help companies maintain health coverage for early retirees between the ages of 55 and 64. This also expires in 2014.
- Medicare drug beneficiaries who fall into the "doughnut hole" coverage gap will get a $250 rebate. The bill eventually closes that gap which currently begins after $2,700 is spent on drugs. Coverage starts again after $6,154 is spent.
- A tax credit becomes available for some small businesses to help provide coverage for workers.
Read the rest of the benefits of the bill at this link.
Other news about the new national health care legislation:
HARTFORD — Connecticut Health Care For America Now released a study Thursday that spotlights how private health insurance companies “waste premiums.”
Health Care for America Now is comprised of more than 1,000 organizations representing more than 30 million people nationwide.
Connecticut HCAN supports the “Ensuring Value for Premiums” amendment to health care reform legislation pending in the U.S. Senate. The legislation, introduced Dec. 4 by U.S. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., requires private insurance companies to spend 90 percent of their revenue from premiums on health care-related costs. The remaining 10 percent of the premium would be used to build in overhead, profits and other non-medical payout charges.
Private health insurance companies spend, on average, 81 percent of their premium revenues on health care-related costs. In Connecticut, one company, Wellpoint, spends 83.6 percent of premium dollars on care.
By comparison, Medicare spends almost 98 percent of its premium revenues on health care-related costs.
Why do we need State consumer protection laws, once we have the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA)?
States must be able to address problems within their borders, before they become nation-wide problems. Purely local problems do not need national legislation. These issues are best dealt with at the State and local levels.
Won’t this result in the CFPA and the States issuing rules on the same topic?
No. Historically, the States have stepped in where Federal policymakers have failed to establish adequate protections. The CFPA is intended to avert such failures in the future. If the CFPA does its job, it will ensure that consumers are adequately protected, and States will not feel compelled to go further. State legislators are subject to the same pressures as all other policy makers, and they do not seek out reasons to push back against the lending industry. Keeping alive the States’ traditional role will provide a backstop against lapses at the federal level and extra assurance that consumers will be appropriately protected. This will also incent industry to cooperate with efforts by the CFPA to issue protections that are appropriately robust and effective.
Are there other advantages to retaining the State’s traditional role in policymaking?
State laws responding to local problems provide useful models and data points for policymakers in other States and at the Federal level. This keeps our policies vibrant and innovative, and enables Federal policymakers to develop best practices based on the experiences of the States.
Click here to continue reading two news clips about the Consumer Financial Protection Agency.
The large turnout for Tuesday's action at the Aetna Building in Hartford received some attention from Sharon Bass at CT News Junkie:
About 150 health-care reform activists rallied with Smith outside of Aetna’s sprawling campus on Farmington Avenue Tuesday afternoon. They came to ask CEO Ronald Williams to sign a pledge promising to stop denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, to stop denying care when customers get sick, and to not lobby against health-reform proposals supported by President Obama and his allies in Congress, especially a provision for a public health option.
The demonstration was one of 150 across the country, simultaneously protesting unhealthy insurance practices and yelling for change in the way this country does medicine.
State To Appeal Campaign Finance Law Ruling
By EDMUND H. MAHONY | The Hartford Courant | 5:22 PM EDT, August 28, 2009
Connecticut elections officials reacted with sharp criticism and promised an all-out legal fight Friday after a federal judge threw out the state's landmark campaign finance law, saying it puts minor-party office seekers at an unconstitutional disadvantage when they challenge traditionally better-financed major-party candidates.
The following is an unsigned editorial appearing in the Connecticut Post that urges state legislators to do the right thing and override Governor Rell's veto of the SustiNet and Healthcare Partnership bills:
Override veto on health care
The governor had her reasons.
In vetoing a pair of health plans last week that would have gone a long way toward achieving universal health coverage in Connecticut, Gov. M. Jodi Rell cited costs, especially in the midst of a recession. She said the state couldn't pay for it. And she said the developing situation in Washington might make the whole process moot.
She had her reasons. She just happens to be wrong.
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