Exchange Board Adopts Increased Deductible Plan

By |

The board of directors in charge of the virtual marketplace called the Health Insurance Exchange reluctantly voted in favor of increasing insurance deductibles for hospital visits and drugs at its monthly meeting Thursday. The hospital visit offered as part of the “silver” plan, which is the second lowest of the various plan tiers offered on the exchange, increased from $2,500 to $3,000 and the pharmacy deductible went up to $500— even though the board expressed a desire to get it down to $400. That’s on top of what has been estimated as monthly premiums as high as between $300 and $700 per month and before co-pays for doctor visits. To read the full report by ctnewsjunkie click here.  

Report Credits Political Courage, Advocacy For Improving Juvenile Justice System

By |

On the third floor of a Romanesque church in Bridgeport there is a shabby office with unreliable electrical wiring and a collection of banged up folding chairs. It’s where Family ReEntry, a social service agency, operates its mentoring programs for at-risk youth. To read the story by the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange click here.

Bushmaster

States Spent $19 Million Subsidizing Assault Rifle Manufactures

By |

Taxpayers across the country are subsidizing the manufacturers of assault rifles used in multiple mass killings, including the massacre of 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown last month. A Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting examination of tax records shows that five companies that make semi-automatic rifles have received more than $19 million in tax breaks, most within with the past five years. “I feel horrified at the power of the gun industry over our political system, that it could exert such influence,” said Newtown resident Barbara Richardson, who lives between the homes of one of the 6-year-old victims and the shooter. Saying she respects hunters who are ethical and good neighbors, she “absolutely [does] not” support taxpayer subsidies to help manufacture assault rifles: “They’re weapons of mass destruction.”

Any new jobs due to tax subsidies are “not worth it,” said Richardson, a nurse whose first patient ever was a 19-year-old accidentally shot by his 13-year-old brother with their father’s gun. The states providing the subsidies since 2003: Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Oklahoma.

American Public Health Association

Gun Violence Needs A Public Health Remedy

By |

After the Newtown school shooting that left 20 children and six adults dead, President Obama said, “These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change.’’

Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, agreed, writing a letter to the President urging that the nation take a public health approach to reduce gun violence. “For too long,” Dr. Benjamin wrote, “we as a nation have failed to take on this devastating problem in our communities, and we can wait no longer.”

This is not simply a matter of semantics. Labeling something a public health issue is a game-changer. It brings together researchers and policy-makers across all sectors.

Advocacy for Patients with Chronic Illness

Health Insurance Exchange Should Be Consumer-Driven

By |

It’s time like these when I miss Jennifer Jaff the most.  Jennifer was the executive director of the Farmington-based Advocacy for Patients with Chronic Illness, Inc., and a member of an advisory committee that is helping build the state’s health insurance exchange, the online marketplace for people buying insurance as mandated by the Affordable Care Act. When Jennifer died in September – she’d been living with a variety of ailments, including Crohn’s disease — she left a huge hole in the state’s safety net. Her board is holding a memorial service for her on Dec. 9 at Hartford’s Old State House, and if just a small portion of the people she helped show up, the building won’t be big enough. We need her now, during the state’s organization of its exchange.

Attorney General George Jepsen

CT Joins $90 Million Settlement with GlaxoSmithKline

By |

The state will receive $1.6 million as part of a $90 million multi-state settlement with the drug maker GlaxoSmithKline to resolve allegations that the company unlawfully promoted its diabetes drug, Avandia. Thirty-seven other states are participating in the settlement, following claims that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) engaged in unfair and deceptive practices by misrepresenting Avandia’s potential cardiovascular risks and by promoting the drug to physicians and other healthcare professionals with false and misleading representations about Avandia’s safety profile. The settlement resolves the state’s claim against the company under the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act. Connecticut’s share of the settlement is $1,668,482, of which $100,000 will be allocated to the Department of Consumer Protection to support the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program and the agency’s Consumer Fund. Another $100,000 will go to the Attorney General’s Consumer Fund.

Affordable Care Act

Pay As You Go Health Care

By |

Joyce Hodgson has always worked and at times she’s had excellent health insurance. Five years ago, she became executive director of Little Theatre of Manchester at Cheney Hall, where she is the only paid person on staff – and has no health insurance.

Affordable Care Act

CT Is “Hell-Yes’’ On Medicaid

By |

Governors in some of the states with the highest rate of uninsured people – including Louisiana, Texas, and Florida – insist they’ll opt out of the Medicaid expansion offered under the Affordable Care Act – or Obamacare. One political website (Politico.com) calls them the “hell-no” states.