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:
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.
The following unsigned editorial was published in The Day shortly after Governor Rell vetoed the SustiNet and Healthcare Partnership bills on July 8, 2009:
Given the chance to begin health care reform, Gov. M. Jodi Rell opted for inaction by vetoing two reform bills Wednesday and appointing yet another advisory board.
No more blue-ribbon panels are necessary to sort out the myriad problems with the health care system in the state. A group of experts did that and the results were the bills the governor rejected. Forming a study panel is an obvious attempt to deflect political criticism of the veto, not find a solution.
Gov. Rell is right when she says Connecticut is strapped for cash and unable to fund new initiatives right now. But the so-called “pooling” and Sustinet bills she vetoed would have created the framework to build an improved health care system over time.
The Sustinet plan would not have begun enrollment until 2012 and stretched implementation over five years. Combined, the two bills would establish universal health care and allow nonprofit organizations, small businesses and municipalities to join the state's insurance pool. The bills, if enacted, would establish the conceptual structure to provide decent, affordable health care to everyone in the state, including the approximately 325,000 uninsured residents.
Forming a 15-member Connecticut Health Care Reform Advisory Board - and charging it with developing health care policies to mesh with whatever reforms the Congress approves - is straight from the Rell administration playbook. When unwilling to act, form a study panel.
Juan Figueroa, President of the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut
On the eve of the deadline for Governor Rell to take action on both SustiNet and the Healthcare Partnership -- both of which were delivered to her on June 23 -- hundreds gathered on the steps of the State Capitol to tell Governor Rell that We Can't Wait for Health Care!
Among the speakers were Kevin Galvin, a small business owner and leader of Small Businesses for Health Care Reform; State Rep. Chris Donovan, Speaker of the House; Anthony Marcel, SEIU 32BJ; Jean deSmet, First Selectwoman of Windham; and Juan Figueroa, President of the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut.
Below you can watch other videos from the rally, in case you were unable to attend.
Congressman Joe Courtney recently held health care roundtable meetings in the 2nd Congressional District, and shared his knowledge about where Congress is at on health care reform as well as heard health care concerns from constituents. Below are video highlights from the July 1st meeting in Norwich.
Congressman Joe Courtney describes the state of health care reform from his perspective, and explains why 2009 is the time to act:
A constituent expresses her support for a real public option to Congressman Courtney:
On June 25, 2009 thousands of citizens from all across the U.S. came together at the nation's capital with a single message for Congress: "Health Care Can't Wait!"
Continue reading for more photos from the Connecticut groups' trip to D.C. and videos from the CT Health Care Town Hall meeting at the Capitol Visitor's Center.
President Barack Obama spoke to over 2,000 physicians at the annual meeting of the American Medical Association in Chicago, and explained why we health care reform must be our top priority.
The President explained the importance of a public option to meaningful health care reform (emphasis added):
The first thing we need to do is protect what’s working in our health care system. Let me repeat – if you like your health care, the only thing reform will mean is your health care will cost less. If anyone says otherwise, they are either trying to mislead you or don’t have their facts straight.
If you don’t like your health coverage or don’t have any insurance, you will have a chance to take part in what we’re calling a Health Insurance Exchange. This Exchange will allow you to one-stop shop for a health care plan, compare benefits and prices, and choose a plan that’s best for you and your family – just as federal employees can do, from a postal worker to a Member of Congress. You will have your choice of a number of plans that offer a few different packages, but every plan would offer an affordable, basic package. And one of these options needs to be a public option that will give people a broader range of choices and inject competition into the health care market so that [we can] force waste out of the system and keep the insurance companies honest.
SustiNet has passed the state House and Senate and will arrive on the Governor's desk very soon. Please add your name to the call for Governor Rell to sign SustiNet into law.
We need your signature on the petition, but we also need you to reach out to your friends, family, and networks and ask them to sign it as well. Time is short -- we want to have all of our signatures ready by Monday, June 15.
Once Governor Rell has the bill, we will deliver your signatures to her office. Tell Governor Rell -- Connecticut needs health care we can all count on!
Senator Dodd is a senior member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and authored an op-ed published in the New London Day on the critical importance of health care reform.
In it, Sen. Dodd uses the overwhelming turnout at each of his four CT Prescriptions for Change events -- in particular, the first, which was held early on a cold Friday morning in January -- as evidence of the tremendous will to see real health care reform enacted. (Video from all four forums is available on the CCAG site: East Hartford, Danbury, New London, and Derby).
Health care costs are rising faster than our economy is growing, crushing family budgets and businesses alike. Already Americans spend 18 cents of every dollar on health care. If we continue down this path, that figure will double by 2040. This week, we learned that 62 percent of all personal bankruptcies were caused by medical problems. And today, nearly half of all home foreclosures are attributable, in part, to financial issues stemming from medical costs.
We've clearly reached a tipping point. Today, some 46 million Americans are without health insurance - including more than 322,000 in Connecticut; millions more have insurance that costs too much and covers too little. Meanwhile, premiums and out-of-pocket costs for individuals and families alike continue to skyrocket. Here in Connecticut, they're up 42 percent over the last eight years alone.
That's not only unacceptable - it's completely unsustainable.
The most significant line in this op-ed, however, is Sen. Dodd's statement of unequivocal support for a public option (emphasis added):
For me, the bottom line is that we need to preserve the ability for people to choose their own doctors, hospitals, and insurance plans. If you like what you have, you can keep it; if you don't, you'll finally have affordable options available to you. In my view, that must include a public health insurance option in addition to private options.
It seems that Sen. Dodd has become more fully convinced of the merits of the public health option, though he has liked the idea for awhile.
SustiNet and the Healthcare Partnership bill recently passed the state House and Senate by wide margins, and received a fair amount of local media coverage.
Christine Stuart at CT News Junkie reports on Saturday's passage of both bills in the state Senate -- SustiNet by a vote of 23-12 and the Healthcare Partnership bill by a vote of 21-12:
Health care advocates will turn their lobbying efforts toward Rell in the next few weeks as the bill makes its way to her desk.
“Few elected leaders ever get such a perfect opportunity to enact major reform,” Juan A. Figueroa, president of Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, said Saturday in a press release. “The House, the Senate, and the people of Connecticut have delivered one such defining moment to Governor Rell.”
CCAG Executive Director Tom Swan has an op-ed in the Connecticut Post about the recently passed Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act, which was sponsored by Chris Dodd, Connecticut's senior Senator.
Tom Swan speaks about how the unfair practices of credit card companies affect CCAG members and others in Connecticut. [March 13, 2009]
The bill puts an end to absurdly high fees that drive families further into debt, requiring that penalties be proportional to the violation and prohibiting issuers from charging fees when customers simply pay by phone or unknowingly exceed their credit limit.
It prevents credit card companies from charging you if they delayed crediting your payment and requires far better disclosure of card terms and conditions.
It includes tough protections for the particularly vulnerable demographic that has been a cash cow for credit card companies in recent years: young people and students.
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