Prior to a first public hearing Tuesday on a proposed “public option” for health insurance, a chorus of voices representing a range of industry players sounded off in more than 200 testimonials filed with the General Assembly.
Although major insurers are funding the majority of the efforts against the Democrat’s public-option proposal, Senate Bill 842, smaller sectors of the state’s economy joined the opposition chorus in testimony.
A government-endorsed and subsidized health insurance plan threatens the livelihoods of Connecticut’s insurance brokers, who provide a vital service in educating consumers, said Gerry Luczak, owner of a small insurance agency in Rocky Hill.
“Any approach to improve health insurance options for Connecticut’s residents and small
businesses should be aimed directly at lowering the overall cost of healthcare,” Luczak said, speaking on behalf of his fellow members of the Connecticut Benefit Brokers association.
“We fear the disruption a public option will potentially cause in the current marketplace with private carriers exiting the state but in particular as it relates to jobs… not just for those who work in the carrier space but also for the thousands of jobs in smaller independent agencies like ours,” said Stephanie Amato, president of Connecticut Benefit Brokers.
A public option could also cost the state thousands of pharmacy jobs and force the closure of more independent drugstores, said Nathan Tinker, CEO of the Connecticut Pharmacists Association, which represents 1,000 industry workers. Such a plan would likely direct patients to outlets run by large pharmacy benefit managers and mail-order services, costing independents vital business and forcing them to close.
“This will not only limit patient choice but may, indeed, force patients in Connecticut’s more rural “pharmacy deserts” to travel long distances in order to get their medicine,” Tinker said.
Arguing in favor of the bill as a workforce and safety imperative, nonprofits and labor unions joined Comptroller Kevin Lembo in testifying to their support for a public option.
Jeff Shaw, senior director of public policy and advocacy at the Connecticut Community Nonprofit Alliance, strongly supported the public option as a way to support struggling agencies
providing vital services in the pandemic. Nonprofits should have the option to keep their current insurers if they choose, he added.
“S.B 842 seeks to offer high-quality health care with affordable premiums and no high deductibles,” Shaw waid. “Nonprofit employees, and the people they serve without insurance, deserve these options.”
Barbara Shaw, executive director of nonprofit Hands On Hartford, said the small size of her staff meant that health insurance premiums rise to unsustainable levels when employees age.
“S.B. 842 will make health care equitable, dependable and affordable by creating new public options for health insurance in our state, something we desperately need,” she said.
Affordable health insurance is a matter of public safety in the pandemic era, said Keri Hoehne, executive vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 371. The union’s members work in food service, healthcare and food processing at casinos and other enterprises across the state and many have lost jobs and health insurance in the last year, she said.
“That led many of them to delay seeking care, something that in the time of COVID, puts all of our health at risk,” Hoehne said.
