( - promoted by ctblogger)
These two things have nothing to do with each other. Seriously.
1. Malloy Retreats From SustiNet:
In his strongest statement yet that he has abandoned the SustiNet health care legislation moving through the General Assembly, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Tuesday that he "does not think this piece of legislation is the right vehicle" for achieving health reform in Connecticut.
The governor's statement followed a week during which Malloy repeatedly expressed skepticism about the present SustiNet bill at town meetings across the state. ...
Malloy's retreat is expected to slow the momentum of the bill in the General Assembly and was met with dismay by health reform advocates, who worry that there is no longer time to rescue SustiNet this year.
2. CEOs Put Pressure On Lawmakers And Endorse Malloy's Budget:
This letter from the five chief executive officers of the largest financial services and insurance companies in the state also adds to the pressure Democratic lawmakers are feeling as they iron out a deal with Malloy before releasing their own budget. ...
Top officials from Aetna, Travelers, CIGNA, United Technologies Corporation, and The Hartford Financial Services Group sent a letter to legislative leaders Thursday, but the letter didn't reach Republicans until Friday afternoon.
You would have to be a tin-foil hat wearing crackpot (right?) to think there was any connection between the Governor getting support of CT's insurance industry (Aetna, Cigna, Travelers, and the Hartford) for his budget on the quid hand, and his submarining of Sustinet on the quo hand.
I mean, it's not like the insurance companies are that invested in stopping Sustinet. Wait, what?
Keith Stover, a lobbyist for the Connecticut Association of Health Plans, said he hoped the OFA analysis would allow lawmakers to move past the SustiNet idea and begin focusing on how the state can make progress through the federal health-care reform bill passed last year.
"I'm hopeful that a fiscal note that I think makes it an impossibility to implement something like SustiNet would really mark a new beginning," he said.
Okay fine, but it's not like Malloy was really that invested in getting Sustinet done. Right?
It's not like he had language on his website supporting it (or at least he did, last week, before MLN and others mentioned it):
I was also an early supporter of legislation that would have established a health insurance option for Connecticut residents called SustiNet. In the end, the final legislation did not go as far as I had hoped. It did not create the SustiNet Health Insurance option, but did set the wheels in motion toward developing a plan that could become law. This was a step in the right direction that was inexplicably vetoed by the Governor. Thankfully, the State Legislature showed great leadership in overriding that veto and moving us one important step closer to achieving quality, affordable healthcare for every Connecticut resident.
Or images of him, also from his now-defunct website, with Sustinet-supporting health care activists and the caption: "Dan joins activists, elected officials, and hundreds of working people from all over the state at the Capitol steps to call upon the Governor to sign the Sustinet Healthcare bill."
Or made one of his first acts as Governor-elect to rally with those same Sustinet-supporting health care activists, in support of Sustinet. Or subsequently put the article on the Governor's own official website:
... Malloy sounded at times like a preacher as he described the progress SustiNet represents for universal health care in the state.
Still, there is no connection. Seriously.
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