Healthcare Reform to Relieve Our Residents
June 4, 2019Today the House of Representatives pass another important legislation that will reduce health-care costs and find innovative ways to improve the quality of health care for Enfield residents.
H.B. 7267, AN ACT CONCERNING PUBLIC OPTIONS FOR HEALTH CARE IN CONNECTICUT.
The bill is a comprehensive approach to lowering health care costs and ensuring high quality coverage.
Reducing Costs in the Individual Market:
● The legislation establishes a state-level reinsurance program that will lower premium costs for the individual market.
● The program should allow the state to receive more than $25 million in federal investments.
● Recent analysis indicates that such a program could reduce premiums by about 5%.
Lowering Prescription Drug Costs:
● Currently, average brand prescription drug costs in Canada are roughly half that of the United States. The bill establishes a program to allow for the safe importation of prescription drugs directly from Canada, which will result in significantly lower prices for consumers struggling with the rising costs of their medications.
Reducing Total Health Care Costs:
● For decades the growth in health care costs has exceeded the growth of the overall state economy. This problem is not unique to Connecticut, and as a result health care now accounts for about 20 percent of the gross national product. To begin to contain health care costs on a state-level, the bill establishes an annual Health Care Cost Growth Benchmark in order to understand how much health care costs can grow across the entire state each year, beginning in 2021.
Thank you to my legislative colleagues who expressed their support for the bill and all the advocates who advocated for the legislation tirelessly.
The bill now moves to the Senate.