Maria Horn

This is my State Capitol update for the week of February 10. If you would rather watch than read, check out the link at the bottom of the page.

The Messy Process of Legislating Begins Again

Last Friday, February 7, bill concepts submitted by individual legislators were due, and the process of legislating officially began. Given that the legislature is comprised of 151 state representatives and 36 senators, each with a different perspective about what the state’s priorities ought to be, it can be messy. To illustrate a little bit about the early phase of that process, I thought I’d highlight the path of one particular bill that I look forward to supporting, the aim of which is to cap the skyrocketing cost of insulin.

In the “short session”, which is the second year of all legislators’ terms and is only three months long, there are restrictions on what kinds of bills individual legislators can raise. Because the short session is meant to focus on budgetary issues, individual legislators can only raise bills that are “financial in nature.” As you can imagine, that’s a pretty flexible category, but it does limit the number of bills that get proposed this way.

The other way that bills get raised is by the relevant committee. Committees don’t have the same limitations, so most bills get raised this way in the short session. This is particularly true for the more complicated issues, which most important ones are.

This means that sometimes, even often, bills raised by individual legislators can be performative: someone wants to make a statement about a topic of importance to them or to a constituent, or to signal their support to the relevant committee, but they don't necessarily have any support in the broader legislature.

So, back to insulin. Last summer, I held a public forum in North Canaan focused on the cost of prescription drugs. One of the topics that was covered was the skyrocketing price of insulin. In 1923, when insulin was discovered, the co-inventors sold the patent for $1 because they didn’t want to profit off a drug that could save lives. Today, despite the fact that the estimated cost of producing a vial of insulin is around $5, the average price of insulin has risen to over $415 per month, and the industry has become Exhibit A for pharmaceutical price gouging.

Since that forum, I've been speaking with the House Chair of the Insurance & Real Estate Committee, Sean Scanlon, about his work for the last year on a bill that would cap the cost of insulin and diabetes equipment to a maximum of $50 and $100/month respectively, saving diabetes patients thousands of dollars, and saving lives. It has been a bipartisan collaborative process to craft a bill that would be raised by the Insurance & Real Estate Committee.

Here comes the messy part. Because of the importance of this legislation, to legislators on both sides of the aisle, Senate leadership decided to submit an individual bill last Friday– they wanted to demonstrate their commitment to the topic by getting it in first, thereby getting to name it Senate Bill 1: their first priority. The problem is that, in the rush to get it in first, the bill they submitted contained only one part of the proposed legislation, and, in fact, a part that might not be included in the final bill at all: a fee to be charged to bad-acting manufacturers and distributors who aren’t transparent about their pricing. It was a placeholder, to get the title, but it was missing the heart of the bill.

This created one of those “gotcha” moments, when some immediately leapt upon this and said, “Aha! The top priority of the Senate is to tax insulin and make money from diabetes patients!” A press conference was held yesterday to clear the air. A bipartisan array of leaders and legislators from both parties and both houses of the legislature were in attendance. Together, they outlined the proposed legislation, which also would make insulin available without a prescription in certain emergency situations and study the possibility of creating a low-income diabetes assistance fund. A few deep breaths and a little common sense would have helped avoid a lot of agitation.

The next step will be to file the bill as outlined in the press conference, after which public hearings will be held and negotiations will continue on the final wording. As soon as the bill is filed, I’ll post it in a future newsletter.

Recent Events

Because of the budgetary focus this session, my own schedule is dominated by Appropriations Committee meetings. The committee has 13 subcommittees (I sit on five of them), and each one has: 1) a briefing with the nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Administration to give us an unbiased view of the numbers; 2) a presentation by the Governor’s agencies, making their case for proposed adjustments to the budget passed last year; and 3) a public hearing, where any member of the public can sign up to testify about the budget’s impact on them. This is before we get to the decision-making meetings, so there are a lot of meetings.

On my other two committees, the focus is on proposing concepts to draft into legislation – these are very general. Click here to see a list of the raised bills in the Environment Committee, and click here to see the list for Judiciary.

Congratulations to Sharon Hospital

Sharon Hospital recently earned a five-star overall hospital rating, the highest possible, from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for quality patient care. It is the only hospital in Connecticut to receive the highest quality rating for patient care and is one of 407 facilities in the nation to earn the top score.

I was glad to get the opportunity to congratulate the new President of the hospital, Dr. Mark Hirko, in person at an event Thursday night bursting with a wide range of community members and business leaders who have been engaged with keeping our hospital healthy, sustainable, and responsive to community needs. Welcome to Dr. Hirko!

Read Aloud Day

Wednesday was Read Aloud Day, and I was invited to join Mrs. Palladino’s fabulous fifth grade class at Southwest Elementary in Torrington. We read some stories from “The Girl Who Rode a Shark”, an inspiring biographical collection celebrating the adventurousness and ingenuity of girls and women around the world. Some were familiar figures (Nellie Bly, anyone?), and some I’d never heard about (Nzinga was an amazing woman). They had great questions about government, and I even got lobbied about whether the legislature was doing enough to protect endangered sharks. And they made me a wonderful poster which is now hanging in my office. Thanks for sharing the morning with me!

It is my honor to represent our district. I look forward to hearing from you about the issues raised in this newsletter, or any other topics you think I should know about. You can email me at maria.horn@cga.ct.gov or call me at (860)-240-8585. Thanks for reading! I hope you are able to share this Valentines Day with someone you love, whether it be a significant other, a family member or a close friend. I wish you a safe weekend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC8CFkTU9lg&feature=youtu.be