Health Care Reform — See It And Believe It

Health care reform has taken on some of the same mythical qualities of some other elusive creatures, like the Loch Ness monster or Sasquatch. We’ve heard that it really is out there somewhere, and we’ve seen the grainy photographs, but until we see it with our own eyes we will remain skeptical.

This year there have been lots of encouraging reports coming out of Congress, and in Hartford lawmakers even had health care reform in the crosshairs. Governor M. Jodi Rell, however, declined to pull the trigger. Last week she vetoed two health care reform bills that earlier had won lopsided legislative approval, largely along party lines. Next week, Democratic majorities in both the state House and Senate will try to put together veto overrides for both measures.

The bills would allow municipalities, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations into the state government’s insurance pool and established universal health care. The insurance pool, which would bring greater economies of scale to hard-pressed municipalities, nonprofits, and businesses with fewer than 50 employees, was also vetoed by the governor last year. Its main drawback is that it would do nothing to improve the plight of the uninsured. The “SustiNet” universal health care plan was new this year and grew out of a four-year effort by the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut to bring relief to the growing numbers of small businesses — including sole proprietors from hot dog vendors and handymen (and women) to licensed therapists and realtors — who have very few and very expensive health insurance options.

The governor’s instinct to veto expensive legislation that is either vague or entirely mute on how it will be paid for would normally win our quick endorsement. But the current system of providing and paying for health care in Connecticut and nationwide is so badly broken that summarily rejecting widely supported remedies until some other year imposes an immediate and continuing cost on individual lives and small businesses so great that it justifies whatever political dustup that may ensue over who pays and how much.

In supporting these initiatives, Connecticut’s business leaders have pointed out that small businesses create 80 percent of the new jobs in the state. Too many of those businesses are losing profits to unrelenting increases in health insurance for their personnel and losing employees when they are forced to drop insurance coverage altogether. In turning its back on this sputtering engine of the local economy, Hartford is inviting even bigger fiscal problems next year as tax revenues continue to fall behind right along with the economy.

Next week, the Legislature needs to override Gov Rell’s vetoes of these two health care reform measures and then get about the business of building a foundation of financial support for a health system that fairly apportions the costs and the savings to the people of the state. We could wait forever for a solution to our health care crisis to emerge from Washington, D.C., where the chase of monsters and mythical beasts seems never-ending. The problems with our health care system are very real, however, and this year in Connecticut we have a couple of very real solutions in our sights.