Introduced by: Rep. Donovan, 84hDist. And Rep. Beals, 88thDist.

Scheduled for a Public Hearing Before the Labor and Public Employees Committee

March 18th, 1999

This Bill would provide all medically necessary services, medications, and long term care for all residents of the State of Connecticut. Residents would have free choice of any licensed health care provider in Connecticut. Decisions about health care would be made by licensed health care providers and patients without insurance pre-approval.

This public health insurance program would be administered by a health care trust accountable to state government. Benefits and fees would be determined by the health care trust in collaboration with a consumer advisory board, a health care provider advisory board, and a hospital advisory board, subject to state budgetary approval.

Funds from the State of Connecticut tobacco settlement would be used to enroll residents and establish the administrative structure for the health care insurance program. Year-to-year funding would be obtained employee payroll taxes, individual income taxes, and excise taxes on activities detrimental to health (cigarettes, alcohol, air and water pollution).

The Bill mandates that the cost to the average citizen and business be less than comparable private health insurance. The Bill also mandates that any increase in the state health care budget be less than the percentage of increase in the national health care budget for the preceding year. These savings are primarily possible because the Bill would reduce administrative costs for health care from their current 15% to 5%. Studies by the State of Connecticut Health Care Access Commission, the Massachusetts Medical Society, and the Congressional Budget Office are all consistent with the conclusion that a tax based, single payer insurance system, as created by this Bill, would decrease total health care expenses in Connecticut despite broadening benefits and covering all the uninsured.

This Bill addresses the problem of the growing proportion of uninsured Connecticut residents, which has doubled to 12% in the last nine years, and underinsured Connecticut residents, now about 25% of the insured population, who would be bankrupted by a major medical illness. The uninsured and underinsured constitute a threat to the physical and economic health of the public and increase the cost of medical care for state taxpayers, who support the health care of individuals bankrupted by medical expenses. Furthermore, the Bill addresses the current problems associated with private insurance companies managing the health care benefits of individual patients- the breach of patient confidentiality that comes from subjecting physician's treatment recommendations to insurance pre-approval, the high administrative and time costs associated with obtaining insurance company pre-approval, the compromise of patient care that results from health care recommendations being managed to minimize cost, the disruption of the health care doctor-patient relationship that results from insurance companies having limited provider networks and refusing to accept any willing provider, and the frustration that many patients and health care providers experience in accessing health care through a managed care system. A 1990 Hartford Courant poll revealed that 60% of Connecticut residents support the proposed type of health care insurance program.