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.

Bottle Bill Expansion - CCAG helped pass the first Bottle Bill decades ago, which since its inception, has kept billions of bottles off our streets and out of our landfills. An effort to expand and update the Bottle Bill was not successful due to opposition of the Speaker of the House, Rep. Amman. Its aim was to include the millions of non-carbonated beverage bottles that consumers now use everyday but that do not have a deposit.