UPDATE ON HEALTH CARE PROGRAM DEVELOPMENTS

OCT. 29, 2007

1.  HEALTHFIRST AUTHORITY

Legislated in the final days of the State Legislature, the HealthFirst Authority had its first meeting on Oct. 17.  The Authority’s membership consists of appointees by the House, Senate, Governor, the Health and Social Service Commissioners, and the Comptroller.  Provisions were made that the designated members include health care advocates and stakeholders in their respective appointments.  Therefore, membership in the Authority includes AFSCME, CT Citizens Action, the Permanent Com. on the Status of Women, and African-American and Latino organizations, to name a few.

Sen. Williams stated that the state needed universal access to health care and that preventive care be addressed.  Others spoke about “a shared vision and strategies,” affordability, that solutions be based on the Institute of Medicine’s Principles, building on what is already in place, and controlling costs.  The figure for the number of uninsured in CT is 300,000 to 400,000. 

Expectations are that the Authority (which is really a commission) will seek staff and break into subcommittees.  Their charge is to report to the Legislature in December 2008.

2. GOVERNOR RELL’S PROPOSAL  FOR EXPANDED HEALTH INSURANCE

The Governor’s independent initiative is the proposed Charter Oak insurance program, which will include families and individuals with incomes up to 300% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) which is $41,070 for a household of 2), prescriptions and lab tests with co-pays and a lifetime benefit of $1,000,000.  The target date for implementation is July 1, 2008.

Essentially, Charter Oak is an expansion of the Husky Program to include the near-poor.  The Husky program currently covers 228,000 children and 95,000 parents.  The projection for the new Charter Oak Health Plan is that it will insure up to 38,000 people by 2011 and be administered by Managed Care Organizations (MCOs).  RFPs will be sent to the insurance industry.

The Governor’s office provided data (2006) for the demographic breakdown of CT’s health-insured and uninsured population, as follows:

Insured through employer - 66.5%    Medicare insured - 3.1%  Husky - 10.2%

Self-purchase - 3.8%  Uninsured - 6.4%

NOTE: Interested in further updates?  Please sign up with the Lobby Corps. E-mail Jean Rabinow at LWVCT@lwvct.org.

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