Local media reports on the January 13 launch of SustiNet are pouring in. Below are excerpts and links from around the web:
- CT News Junkie - "Tonight We Have a Plan" (With Video)
- New Britain Herald - Hundred Hear Plan to Cover Connecticut
Also at CT News Junkie - Health Care Campaign UnveiledDr. Michael Deren, council chairman of the Connecticut State Medical Society, said many times these health care proposals are written in a vacuum without the input from medical physicians. He said that’s not the case with Sustinet, where the input of the medical society’s 7,000 members was welcomed and incorporated as part of the plan.
“If the concepts in the plan are passed things will change,” he said.
But Tuesday night was not about facts and figures or details about the plan it was a rally and a celebration.
The rally call Tuesday night was a resounding “Yes we can!” followed by “Yes we will!”
“This is our first down payment on health care for everyone,” said Universal Health Care Foundation President Juan Figueroa. “Our state and the nation face critical challenges because of our floundering economy and skyrocketing health care costs. SustiNet provides the legislature, which convened last week, with an innovative and practical blueprint for change. Our proposal is action-ready.”
- WFSB Channel 3 - Campaign Aims To Bridge Health Care Gap (With Video)
- WNPR - Universal Healthcare Foundation of CT Unveils Reform Proposal (With Audio)
- Hartford Courant - Foundation Presents Plan To Provide Universal Health Coverage
- New Haven Register - Public-Private Health Insurance Model Unveiled
- CT Local Politics - Health Care Foundation Unveils “SustiNet” Plan
- Real Hartford - Rally for New Health Care Plan (With Photos)
"I want progress and some hopes that things will change," Hartford resident Barbara Albert said.
Albert said she suffers from mental illness and other problems.
“I’m on disability and Social Security, and I don't have access to health care with my disabilities mostly," she said.
Albert and dozens of others showed up at Union Station Tuesday night to learn more about a new health care plan in Connecticut spearheaded by the Universal Health Care Foundation.
President of the Universal Healthcare Foundation of Connecticut, Juan Figueroa says this plan would use state purchasing power to help negotiate lower costs.
The proposal calls for a start date of 2011 and there would be minimal costs for the state until 2014 when the state would be expected to invest $950 million dollars. That cost sounds daunting considering the state's ballooning deficit now.
But in a conference call with reporters, Figueroa says universal health care is being discussed on the federal level and the timing of a proposal from Connecticut may help the state get federal aid to enact it.
SustiNet would provide insurance to anyone who wants it and emphasize preventive care and the management of chronic illnesses. The plan, which would begin enrollment in 2011, would create a large health insurance pool by combining state employees, retirees and people covered by state assistance programs.
The pool would be open to the public, people with inadequate insurance and employees of small businesses, nonprofits and municipalities. Eventually, it would be open to large employers, as well, but they would have to buy the coverage.
SustiNet would not replace insurance companies, but would compete with them and hopefully drive down costs, Davenport said.
“This is our first down payment on health care for everyone,” said foundation President Juan A. Figueroa, who described [SustiNet] as a public plan designed to compete in the private market.
House Speaker Christopher Donovan, D-Meriden, who sponsored a more streamlined version of the proposal last year that Gov. M. Jodi Rell vetoed, said the plan represents “a lot of good work, a lot of positives. We have been asked to come up with ideas that save money and help people, and this does both.”
The foundation hopes legislators will pass the plan, and have sent copies to every member of the General Assembly. The foundation also says that if implemented over a five-year timeline, the plan would end up saving households and businesses $1.75 billion in 2014.
Also at Real Hartford - SustiNet: Health Care For EveryoneThe connection between a train/bus station and health care was not clear to me, so I asked Janet Davenport, the communications chief of the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut to explain. Besides it being public and close to the State Capitol, it’s also symbolic of Connecticut. She said Union Station had suffered a fire years ago and needed to be rebuilt. Being resilient like that is how she sees the people of Connecticut, who are pushing for a sustainable health care system.
