Connecticut lawmakers this week overrode the governor's veto to start the process of creating a public health insurer that could use bond financing for part of its implementation.
The SustiNet plan establishes a nine-member board charged with developing a health care plan that would provide coverage to uninsured residents. The board is required to submit draft legislation for the plan in January 2011 and the insurance program is to be available in July 2012.
Gov. M. Jodi Rell blasted Public Act No. 09-148 as expensive and unfunded.
"I remain particularly concerned about the fiscal impact of the SustiNet bill," Rell said in a statement. "They have approved a new, $1 billion spending program without providing a way to pay for it. The simple fact is that the families and employers of Connecticut cannot afford the new taxes that will be required by this new program."
"That's not accurate," said Janet Davenport spokeswoman for Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut Inc., an organization that lobbied for the law. "The governor said that it costs a $1 billion a year, we don't know where that's coming from ... What SustiNet does is lay a framework for a universal health care plan."
How the insurance plan would be paid for is yet to be determined and will be part of the legislation to be proposed in 2011. Davenport said that SustiNet will save money by focusing on preventative care rather than having uninsured patients seek care in emergency rooms.
According to the foundation's Web site, the plan will be paid for through a combination of insurance premiums, "modest contributions" from businesses that don't offer their employees health insurance and have an annual payroll greater than $318,000, and from yet-to-be-determined revenues.
The main costs to the state will be increased Medicaid reimbursement rates for health care providers and subsidies for individuals who buy into the program but can't afford to pay full premiums. The implementation of the plan would bring in additional federal funds, under existing federal programs, according to the foundation.
Jeff Beckham, spokesman for the state's Office of Policy and Management, which is part of Rell's executive branch, said that their analysis calculated the costs of all the different benefits that the plan would provide and that about half of the estimated $1 billion annual cost would come from expanding Medicaid coverage to a "larger universe of lower-income folks."
The law could result in a bond issue by the Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities Authority to finance the creation of an electronic medical and health record infrastructure that would play a central role in coordinating and tracking medical care for the proposed system's patients.
The law suggests financing the record system through the authority but calls on the committee to determine the most appropriate financing options.
The law also provides for the retaining of bond counsel and underwriters but doesn't say that bond financing will be sought. The plan would be implemented by a public authority or other entity to be created under future legislation.
