While the current debate in DC has focused on the choice of public health insurance plan, this Dispatch
will outline how state legislators and health care advocates have
already been advancing the priority of a public plan - helping to build
grassroots support for creating the choice of a public health insurance
plan as part of comprehensive health care reform. Notable state
campaigns to extend public plans to more families include Healthy
Wisconsin, a guaranteed health care program for all state residents,
providing state employee-level benefits and ensuring consumers' choice
of providers, which passed the State Senate in 2007, and the
Connecticut Healthcare Partnership, allowing small businesses and
municipalities to buy coverage through the state employee health plan,
which passed the legislature in 2008 but was vetoed by the Governor.
This year, these initiatives have been reinvigorated by legislators
and joined by other proposals that hinge on creating a public plan,
like SustiNet, a comprehensive reform measure which creates a true
public health insurance option in Connecticut, the nation's insurance
capitol.
