Nearly one week after the Charter Oak Plan began accepting applications, an article Ted Mann wrote for The Day delves into greater detail about one of the the downsides of the plan:

Rell's statements that Charter Oak would cover the neediest adult applicants because it has income-based subsidies and contains no restrictions against those with pre-existing and chronic conditions is “simply false,” said Sheldon V. Toubman of the New Haven Legal Assistance Association.

”The plan as it was designed was meant to keep the most vulnerable people out,” Toubman said.

Toubman referred to an e-mail message obtained by Charter Oak opponents under open-records laws, in which a consultant wrote to state officials, including Commissioner Michael Starkowski of the Department of Social Services, that the caps on expenditures under Charter Oak would provide a “disincentive approach” to “avoid bad risk” - that is, to discourage unhealthy people more likely to incur significant or repeated medical expenses from signing up.

The plan's annual benefit limits of $7,500 for prescriptions, $4,000 on durable medical equipment, and $100,000 total are sufficient for people who are ordinarily healthy -- like recent college grads -- but provide insufficient coverage for those who need it the most. Also, the premiums for Charter Oak are not lower than what such a person could get on his own.

Mann's article is very good, and the flaw of the Charter Oak Plan at the center of his piece is that benefits are limited annually (see above) and to a lifetime maximum of $1 million, effectively prohibiting anyone who has a health catastrophe from remaining on the plan.

One of the key talking points used by proponents of the Charter Oak Plan is that no one is excluded based on pre-existing medical conditions. However, these coverage limits are de facto exclusion! The people who need affordable coverage the most will not be able to participate once they exceed the limits, and the people who will not exceed the limits are able to get more affordable health coverage on their own.

So what is the significance of the Charter Oak Plan's launch?

”The beginning of enrollment means that the state has allowed three insurance companies to offer a product to healthy people that will not protect them if they're sick, but doesn't deal with underlying issues with guaranteeing health security for all Connecticut's residents,” said Tom Swan, a longtime campaigner for some form of single-payer, universal health insurance.