House Bill 5536 (CT Partnership Bill) Being Threatened:

Our state legislators recently passed landmark health care legislation known as the Connecticut Healthcare Partnership, HB 5536, by strong margins in both the House and Senate. This legislation would allow municipalities, nonprofit groups and small businesses to voluntarily join the state's health care pool, using the principle of bulk purchasing to reduce the skyrocketing costs for health care.

The insurance industry is opposed to the concept because they fear increased competition and have pressured Governor Rell to threaten a veto of the bill thereby blocking consumers from benefiting from more choices, healthy competition, and cost savings.

The CT Citizen Action Group (CCAG) has been hosting press conferences, calling our members, and writing letters to the editor in an effort to get Governor Rell to sign this bill, but we need you to call Governor Rell Now and tell her that the Connecticut Healthcare Partnership is good for the state, good for our communities, and good for us as taxpayers. Ask her to stand up for us and sign the bill.

Brief Summary of 5526
By opening the State employee pool and allowing Municipal employees to join voluntarily, we will be able to reduce costs to municipalities and increase benefits for employees.

Municipal employees will be able to take advantage of the increased bargaining power and reduced administrative costs associated with a larger pool. Municipalities will see savings that can be used locally and may offset property tax increases.

Key Points

• Participation Will Be Voluntary
  - In similar legislation last year, mandatory participation was considered as an option to guard against adverse selection and to ensure that an adequate number of municipalities would join. In the current proposal, these concerns will now be addressed by establishing a committee that will monitor and have authority over participation in the pool.

CALL GOVERNOR RELL TODAY:
Ask Governor Rell to Office of Governor M. Jodi Rell --- office closes at 5pm (860) 566-4840 or (800) 406-1527

Tell them , That you support HB 5536, AN ACT ESTABLISHING THE CONNECTICUT HEALTHCARE PARTNERSHIP, and that Connecticut needs Governor Rell to sign this bill into law to open up more health care choices to businesses, municipalities, and nonprofits.

The CT Health Care Partnership Bill would allow cities and towns to tap into the State employee health care system. We support this legislation because it addresses one of the fastest rising costs for municipal taxpayers; health care for municipal employees -- a line item that has seen double digit increases in recent years. Its success would be accomplished by capturing savings through increased bargaining power and lower administrative costs by using the states largest health care purchasing pool, state employees.

CCAG will be supporting legislation that:

• Enacts penalties for Insurance companies that provide incentives to deny care and benefits when obligated to provide care.
• Requires health insurance carriers to accurately report what percentage of every dollar received is actually paid out in medical claims (Medical Loss Ratio), and mandate that they spend no less than 87.5 % towards claims.

It’s important that the state of CT take action now to address the racial disparities in our health care system. We’ll be urging legislative leaders to fund the Office of Minority Health, and invest in translator services and cultural competency training for medical professionals. While the causes of health disparities are complex, we know that racial and ethnic minorities in CT are more likely to lack health insurance, receive lower-quality care, and suffer from worse health outcomes.

Governor Rell’s “Charter Oak Health Care Plan”, which passed last year was put forth by Governor Rell with the claim that it was “the answer to the state’s health care problem,” when actually it is a severely limited insurance program that provides only limited prescription drug and durable medical equipment benefits. It would also undermine major consumer protections currently in state law such as the equal treatment of mental health and physical health benefits. This is not the type of health reform that CT needs.

CCAG will be urging the passage of legislation that requires individuals who lobby municipal officials to report themselves as lobbyists as is required at the state level. We will also be supporting a bill that forbids people who have been banned from serving on any public corporations’ Board of Directors from serving on public and quasi public state boards.

CCAG was instrumental recently in passing Lead Screening for Children legislation. We now are building support for the “Toxic Toy Bill” which aims to ban the use of toxic chemicals, such as lead, used in products that are marketed to children up to 12 years of age. The bill would act as a stepping stone for comprehensive toxic chemical reform and would require the use of safer chemical alternatives when feasible.

The best science available to us clearly demonstrates the need to start cutting global warming pollution now with the goal of achieving an 80% reduction by 2050. Ideally, such action should be taken at the federal level but federal leaders have failed to act. Connecticut can do more to stop global warming by enacting a mandatory cap on global warming pollution that will cut emissions to 10% below 1990 levels by 2020 and by at least 80% by 2050. CCAG will continue the fight to protect the environment.

Connecticut foreclosures are on the rise as they are throughout the country. There were 7,747 foreclosure filings in Connecticut in the third quarter of 2007. This represents a 920% increase over the third quarter of 2006. The failure of sub prime loans is affecting markets across the world. This bill is designed to prevent many of the predatory practices and loan terms that created the current lending and foreclosure crises.

Toxic Pesticide Ban - (HB5234) This session CCAG worked hard along with the CT Coalition for a Safe & Healthy CT to pass a historic bill that built on last years historic legislation that protected children in pre-school, day cares and elementary schools by expanding the toxic lawn pesticide ban to 8th grade. According to the US EPA and National Academy of Sciences, of the 30 commonly used lawn pesticides, 19 have studies linking them with cancer, 13 are linked with birth defects, 21 with reproductive effects, 15 with neurotoxicity or abnormal brain development.