May 27, 2008 9:57 AM

A chance for real health care reform in Connecticutt

There's quite a battle brewing in Connecticut over the fate of a watershed health care reform bill that is currently awaiting the Governor's signature.

The bill, called the Connecticut Healthcare Parntership, is a simple approach to cutting health care costs. It would allow municipalities, small businesses, and non-profits to buy into the group health insurance plan already being offered to state employees. The logic behind the plan is simple: the bigger the pool, the bigger the incentive for insurance companies to either offer decent rates or lose business to someone else who will.

If this notion sounds familiar, it's because private-public pooling forms the backbone of the health care platforms of both candidates in the current Democratic nominating contest. With states like Kansas, Delaware, Washington, and Wisconsin also considering similar pooling measures, passage of the Connecticut bill would lend major momentum to a national state-level push for comprehensive health care reform, proving once again that states can beat the feds to the punch on the most pressing national issues.

The bad news is that Connecticut's Republican Governor, Jodi Rell has indicated she intends to veto the bill, citing claims from health insurance companies that they will insist on renegotiating the state employee group plan at higher rates if the bill is passed.

Fortunately, at least some in the press see through this act of political blackmail, noting that there is no evidence that insurance companies would have either the right or the financial incentive to renegotiate the plans. Just today, the Connecticut Attorney General issued a legal opinion maintaining that such a unilateral renegotiation would be unlawful.

Meanwhile, in a spate of media events and netroots actions over the past week, a powerful alliance of small business owners, city officials, and unions has stepped up to the plate calling on Rell to put the interests of big insurance aside and pass the bill.

Besides Rell and the insurance companies, the only entity to voice opposition to the bill has been the Connecticut Business Industry Association, a special interest group whose board is littered with executives from the nation's largest health insurance companies and who itself sells group health insurance at high rates to small business owners.

The battle lines have been drawn. On one side we hear the usual objections to reform from the execs who would be forced to stop bilking the public for obscene profits if they passed. On the other, we hear cash-strapped small business owners and workers imploring their governor to help them get by.

Rell's decision should be in soon. The whole country will be watching, or at least they should be.