The Manchester Young Democrats Healthcare Forum held a healthcare forum on February 6, 2007 at Manchester Community College. Panelists included State Senate President Don Williams, State Representative Andrew Fleischmann, Eric George of the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, and Professor Angelo Messore from the college. Google Video messed up the color at the beginning but it quickly corrects itself:
In the Fall of 2001, my daughter was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor. Through the miracle of modern medicine -- including 14 hours of surgery and more than a year of chemo and radiotherapy -- the wonderful doctors and nurses at Connecticut Children's Medical Center saved her life, and today she's happy and healthy.
I can't say exactly how directly federally funded research contributed to her recovery, but I'm sure it was instrumental. One organization that was a tireless advocate for children with cancer was the National Childhood Cancer Foundation, now called CureSearch.
CureSearch has put out an alert regarding threats to federal cancer research funding. If you feel so moved, I urge you to use their online tool to send letters to our members of Congress, and then follow up with a personal e-mail to your representative.
We're all concerned with the war, of course, but even in the midst of crisis, life -- and the hard work of saving lives -- goes on.
Melissa Bailey files her report on the CFL get-together, with the full platform and some details of the pre-meeting Orman / Korchin showdown. (Not to fuss, but Jon withdrew his alternate platform.)
CT News Junkie reports on the results the state is not getting for all their Medicaid spending. This is the key wedge issue for single-payer, stripping MCOs of their lucrative contracts to provide government-funded services.
Blog for choice tomorrow. Godammit, we're going to get MLN on the Family Institute Enemies List one of these days! I'll be on the lookout for good pro-choice / reproductive freedom posts tomorrow.
CTBlue catches Lanny Davis confusing "bipartisanship" with "halfway between mediocre and insane." And an old link from Colin in case you forgot all about Lanny's style. "Bill O'Reilly in a donkey mask" still seems apt.
UPDATE 8:45pm The real legislation to redeploy U.S. troops from Iraq, sponsored by the Out of Iraq Caucus. Larson is the only one I could find as a member, does anyone know about Courtney or Murphy? Either way, H.R. 508 is the bill to watch.
Also, a poll over the fold: I don't run the joint, but I'm interested in what MLN readers are thinking on this.
In his regular column in The Sound (no link that I could find), State Senator Ed Meyer laid out three major issues for the next legislative session.
The first issue is healthcare. The costs have become unacceptable, and we must deal with the problem of about 400,000 residents of our state being uninsured. . . The second paramount issue for 2007 will certainly be a legislative attack on burgeoning energy costs. . . The third issue we cover must be property tax reform.
Those of us fortunate enough to be represented by the good Senator have a standing invitation to lunch in Hartford. I plan to take him up on that in the next few weeks. I have some ideas of my own for what should be enacted this year and there was an earlier thread on the subject.
If you have anything on your wish list, I'd be more than happy to pass it along when Senator Meyer and I sit down to break bread.
Healthy? Insurers don't buy it
By Lisa Girion, Times Staff Writer
December 31, 2006
[...]
Blue Cross of California, which dominates the market, declined to disclose its rejection rate, as did its chief competitors. A 2004 industry survey found that health plans said they turned away about 12% of all applicants. But the rejection rate rose with age to 30% for people 59 and older. (emphasis added)
[...]
Health plans also reveal a portion of their underwriting guidelines in letters notifying applicants why they were rejected, as well as in communications with brokers who sell their coverage. According to regulators' postings, rejection letters and interviews with brokers, conditions that can lead to outright rejection or a higher premium include:
AIDS, allergies, arthritis, asthma, attention deficit disorder, autism, bed-wetting, breast implants, cancer, cerebral palsy, chronic bronchitis, chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic sinusitis, cirrhosis, cystitis, diabetes, ear infections, epilepsy, gender reassignment, heart disease and hemochromatosis (a common genetic disorder that causes the body to absorb too much iron) [...] hepatitis, herpes, high blood pressure, impotence, infertility, irritable bowel syndrome, joint sprain, kidney infections, lupus, mild depression, muscular dystrophy, migraines, miscarriage, pregnancy, "expectant fatherhood," planned adoption, psoriasis, recurrent tonsillitis, renal failure, ringworm, severe mental disorders, sleep apnea, stroke, ulcers and varicose veins.
So one can be refused health insurance outright because of prior miscarriage, breast implants, asthma, impotence, or migraines. You can be refused insurance because you are planning to adopt a child (an indicator of infertility, perhaps), and men can be refused insurance because of the statistical likelihood that they will soon be a father.
Wow.
I wanted to throw a thought out there for criticism: it strikes me as relatively non-controversial that we have a government as a tool to insure and maintain our rights, while market forces can be used to manage privileges.
Government provides for a police force to protect our basic rights, though one can always hire a bodyguard or private security if you want more protection than the government can reasonably provide. On the other hand, there is no absolute right to drive, or to have your widow and children cared for should you die: I don't think too many people would object to a car insurance company refusing to insure someone with 5 DUIs, or a charging more for life insurance for someone at age 80 than age 30.
There's plenty to insure, and plenty of ways for private industry to make a decent profit enabling personal privileges and offering additional piece of mind to people who insist on having it. But if 12 percent of America will never be allowed to get health insurance because, well, they just might use it, then the cost of preserving the private health insurance system is just too high.
Can you think of any cases where this rights/privileges formulation breaks down?
What's extra galling and obscene about our healthcare debate is that the moderation-fueled insistence on including the private insurers no matter what follows from the assumption that businesses of this sort have a natural right to (financial) well-being, a right so inalienable that we must sacrifice the well-being (health) of living, breathing human beings to enable it.
Corporate person-hood is already a complex legal problem. But to say that businesses actually have more rights than people? Hard to think of anything more radical than that.
[Dec 06, 2006] The number of uninsured Connecticut residents increased to nearly 223,000 people, or 6.4% of the state's population, in 2006 -- an increase of 26,000 residents since 2004, according to a survey released Monday by the state Office of Health Care Access, the Hartford Courant reports. The telephone survey, conducted last summer, involved 4,202 state residents. According to the survey:
66.5% of Connecticut residents have employer-sponsored health insurance, compared with 64% in 2004;
23.3% of residents are enrolled in public health programs like Medicaid or Medicare, compared with 26.2% in 2004;
Families of four with annual incomes lower than $20,000 are 12 times more likely to be uninsured than families with annual incomes of $60,000;
Slightly more than half of the state's uninsured are minorities, with Hispanics comprising 34% of uninsured state residents;
61% of the state's uninsured residents are working adults, and more than half of those adults are in permanent, full-time jobs; and
14% of the working uninsured have access to employer-sponsored health benefits but decline coverage.
Based on the survey results, the University of Connecticut Department of Public Policy estimates that nearly 347,000 state residents were uninsured at some point during the past year. The Office of Health Care Access plans to release additional information and surveys that examine the reasons why some Hispanics and young adults do not have coverage. Agency Commissioner Cristine Vogel said more uninsured state residents are eligible and could be enrolled in the state's HUSKY program with proper outreach. HUSKY is the state's Medicaid program for low-income children and some of their parents
When it comes to providing health care for poor children and their families enrolled in the Husky program, a $700 million budget item, the state is not getting its money's worth. It may be time for the General Assembly to consider alternatives to the present system of managed care.
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