Calls needed to save healthcare for 13,000 working parents

Unless legislators act soon, 13,000 working parents will lose HUSKY coverage this coming January 1^st. Sally Grossman, one of those parents with two small children, runs her own house painting business. According to Sally, “Every year I do a little better. But if I earn over $28,000, I lose my health insurance.” Click here for In Their Own Words to learn what happened to working parents who lost coverage in 2003. The eight families in the study included a mom who could no longer afford her blood pressure medication after she was cut from coverage and experienced two heart attacks. In addition to the serious harm to her health and her family, her hospitalizations cost the state far more than keeping her covered and on her medications would have. Restoring Sally Grossman’s and the other 13,000 parents’ coverage will cost $16 million, but the state has received over $1 billion in unexpected tax receipts this year and the state has saved hundreds of millions from reforms since removing private insurers from the program. The Republican budget proposal goes further than the Democrats’ in restoring funding for a cut in funding for low income seniors’ and people with disabilities’ coverage, but neither proposal provides any relief to working parents. A letter from 102 members of Connecticut’s clergy urges policymakers to restore funding for HUSKY parents, stating that “Budgets are moral documents, and they are an articulation of our core values.” Advocates are urged to call House and Senate leaders asking them to restore HUSKY coverage for working parents. Phone numbers: House Democrats 860-240-8500, House Republicans 860-240-8700, Senate Republicans 800-842-1421, and Senate Democrats 800-240-0208.