LWVCT Urges Support For SB 1371 and SB 1349 for Quality, Affordable Health Care in CT 3/6/07
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LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF CONNECTICUT 1890 DIXWELL AVENUE, SUITE 203 HAMDEN, CT 06514
INSURANCE & REAL ESTATE COMMITTEE CHAIRMEN: SEN. JOSEPH CRISCO, REP. BRIAN O’CONNOR
PUBLIC HEARING MARCH 6, 2007
SUPPORT FOR BILLS SB 1371 Establishing the CT Saves Health Care Program and SB 1349 Establishing the CT Select Care Choices Program
Thank you for the opportunity for the League of Women Voters of Connecticut and its 2400 members to state our concerns and support for quality, affordable health care for all the people of Connecticut.
As a national organization, the League has been on record for health care reform for the last fourteen years, following several years of intensive study by our members. We strongly urge the legislature to act this year to establish and implement health care goals that provide: *access to health care for everyone: children and adults; i.e. universal health care *a basic level of health care that includes the prevention of disease, health promotion and education and primary care *the opportunity to purchase insurance coverage beyond the basic level. Key criteria for a statewide health care program require that it be universal, accessible, affordable and sustainable.
We hope that the members of the Insurance & Real Estate Committee agree that it is unconscionable for a progressive, financially healthy state such as ours to continue to have nearly 400,000 residents without health care insurance. The safety net programs now in place are inadequate for serving our working poor and middle class populations.
The League supports administration of a health care program to be financed by a combination of the private and public sectors, but is opposed to a strictly private market-based model. Ideally, a single payer system is the most efficient and economical, as we know from the Medicare program. Health care administration that is greatly fragmented increases costs, inefficiency and complexity.
Given the enormous groundswell of public support for health care reform, the League urges the legislature to take positive action this year to implement a meaningful health care program for all the residents of Connecticut.
Contact Information: Charlotte Shapiro, Health Care Specialist, LWVCT, 628A Heritage Village, Southbury CT 06488 203-264-5850 |
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