Connecticut Post Online - October 18, 2007
Ken Dixon
HARTFORD — An advisory group with a goal to design a universal health care system in Connecticut had its inaugural meeting on Wednesday and legislative leaders were there to encourage them.
Created during this year's legislative session, the HealthFirst Connecticut Authority is bringing health care professionals, activists and advocates together with a common goal at a time when as many as 400,000 state residents may be without adequate insurance coverage.
Legislation this year also expanded — for the first time since 1993 — hospital payments and Medicaid reimbursements for doctors and dentists to increase treatment opportunities for low-income children.
Speaker of the House James A. Amann, D-Milford, said the process may be gradual, but it must remain steady. "There are still missing pieces to the health care puzzle in Connecticut," he told the panel. "That's why we're here."
Amann warned that even insured families are a major illness or ailment away from being ruined financially.
"Embedded in this new commitment to Medicaid is the second commitment, to answer larger questions, like how do we broaden access, affordability and limiting spiraling costs and thoughts of personal responsibility in health care," Amann said. "How do we create broad coverage that is viable and sustainable? How do we pay for it?"
He warned that Connecticut has an "identity crisis" when it comes to health care. "We have only tinkered around the edges of real health care reform, particularly when it comes to private insurance and delivery."
Senate President Pro Tempore Donald E. Williams, Jr., D-Brooklyn, said reducing emergency room visits for the uninsured and underinsured can save money for everyone in the state. Preventive treatment is another major way to save costs and avoid expensive treatments later on for chronic ailments, he said.
This year, the Legislature passed "HealthFirst Connecticut and Healthy Kids," which created the committee, made up of public officials, doctors, child advocates and business representatives.
House Majority Leader Christopher G. Donovan, D-Meriden, said he and other legislative leaders have been working on the issue for several years.
"Many of us still feel there's much to be done," Donovan said to the panel. "Everybody wants good health care and they want it affordable. And that is your challenge."
Tom Swan, executive director of the Connecticut Citizen Action Group and co-chairman of the authority, said that after 20 years of working on the issue, expanded health care has never been more important.
"I think we've reached the point in society where people are looking for solutions and we've had a problem," said Swan, noting that the panel has a 14-month-long deadline.
Ken Dixon, who covers the Capitol, can be reached at (860) 549-4670.
