Budget Process
Top Stories of 2020
A year ago, our predictions for 2020 missed all but the recession. COVID has us giving up on predictions, so we’ll just take a look back at our top stories of this year. Advocacy Toolbox now online — Updates include specific, real world tools for legislative, administrative, and state budget advocacy, how to change public…
Read MoreCTNJ OP-ED | New Health Plan for State Employees Needs Transparency
The State Comptroller’s Office is undertaking payment reform for the very costly state employee health plan without public accountability or transparency. The controversial plan to pay for health care in bundles and reward high quality providers for the plan’s 250,000 members could be a gamechanger, but it could also fail. The problem is that we…
Read MoreCT workers’ health benefits cost more, but growing more slowly and take less of our incomes
Download the report While total premiums, deductibles, and the workers’ share of premiums for Connecticut employee health coverage are higher than the US average, they have generally grown less quickly and consume less of our incomes than for other Americans from 2010 to 2019. Connecticut employer health coverage total premiums, employee share of premiums, and…
Read MoreAdvocacy Tool of the Day archive online
The last Advocacy Tool of the Day will be in email boxes on Monday. The Tools provided a roadmap through the updated Advocacy Toolbox. Tools included how to engage policymakers, serving on a policy committee, coalitions, working with reporters, thanking the people that help, and the budget cycle (very important this coming year). If you…
Read MoreCost Cap underservice monitoring plan is very weak, puts people at risk
Download the report This week, the Office of Health Strategy (OHS) unveiled their plan to monitor for unintended consequences of their plan to cap healthcare cost increases. OHS acknowledged in the plan that the Cap “may cause providers to reduce provision of necessary healthcare services so as not to exceed the benchmark.” Only a very…
Read MoreCT Medicaid eligibility and service decisions benefit members but also the state budget
It may be counter-intuitive but, despite our high incomes, Connecticut’s generosity in eligibility and provider rates means the federal government provides more support to our program than other states. Medicaid is jointly funded, and administered, by both federal and state governments. Federal funding is highest to states with the lowest per capita incomes. As a…
Read MoreHas MA’s cost cap worked? Should CT copy it?
Download the report The latest reports (here and here) on Massachusetts’s first-in-the-nation cost cap project raise questions about whether it has worked. Since the cap was implemented in 2013, consumer costs are growing faster than overall healthcare, inflation, or incomes. Despite almost eight years under their cost cap, Massachusetts’s out-of-pocket costs and premiums have grown…
Read MoreCT hospital uncompensated care below US average, varies between hospitals, no relation to profits
Read the report According to the state’s latest report, Connecticut hospitals provided totaled $806 million in uncompensated care last year, up 5.3% from 2018. Uncompensated care is the total of charity care, provided to needy patients that hospitals never expected to be reimbursed, plus bad debt, care provided that patients couldn’t or wouldn’t pay for.…
Read MorePublic comments critical of OHS’s Cost Cap plan
Several comments submitted on the Office of Health Strategy’s plan to cap healthcare costs during the public comment period raised serious concerns. The concerns echo those raised in previous unanswered letters signed by dozens of advocates. Comments were submitted by CT legal services programs, Gaye Hyre on behalf of the advocate letter writers, and one…
Read MoreCTNJ candidate questionnaire now online
Candidates’ answers to CT News Junkie’s questionnaire about policy issues facing Connecticut is now online. Several questions relate to healthcare. Inform your vote by checking out your candidates’ answers. Health questions for candidates: What should Connecticut do to re-tool our public health for COVID-19 and the possibility of future pandemics, while also addressing other chronic…
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