Katie D’Agostino, President and CEO
Central Connecticut Chambers of Commerce
After years of feeling like Connecticut was falling behind, our economy finally found the momentum needed to mount a major comeback in recent years. Our state rebounded faster than our peers from the COVID-19 pandemic, with employers across a variety of sectors, including manufacturing, leading the way.
By investing in infrastructure and taking the first steps to address the state’s excessive tax burden, policymakers have played a critical role. This positive progress has created new opportunities for small businesses in the Central Connecticut region and throughout the state. These small businesses power the heart of our local communities and represent 99 percent of all businesses in Connecticut. Many of these businesses are members of the Central CT Chambers of Commerce (and others) which serve as essential advocates and support networks, ensuring our local economies remain vibrant.
However, this momentum could be fleeting, and progress tenuous if policymakers in Hartford do not commit to a commonsense approach that smartly reduces, rather than expands, onerous mandates on businesses and the private market that can increase costs and stifle growth. Health care is a major area of concern to businesses in our region, our Chamber members, and throughout the state.
We all share the goal of expanding access to high-quality care and reducing costs. But several proposals floated in the General Assembly this year would significantly undermine the state’s health care system, already straining under years of sustained increases in red tape. The result: decreased access to care, fewer options, and higher costs for employers, including many Chamber members, and the people whose coverage they sponsor.
Chambers of Commerce across Connecticut work tirelessly to advocate for policies that foster a strong business environment. The imposition of additional costly mandates or the slow erosion of private market options undermines those efforts, placing our members in a precarious position. Rising health care costs directly affect the bottom line of the businesses we represent, limiting their ability to hire, grow, and contribute to the economic vitality of their communities. We stand at a fork in the road. The public and private sectors can either work together to address the real causes of rising health care costs and foster competition and flexibility that will spur true savings. Or Connecticut could continue down a doomed path to a government-controlled health insurance system.
There are two roads by which Hartford could steer us to that unfortunate endpoint.
The first path is obvious. Hartford could pass legislation to directly implement an unaffordable government-controlled health insurance system, like a state government public option.
The second path is close to where we already are today, through the continued gradual erosion of the private health care market. Despite often starting from a basis in good intentions, added constraints on health care providers and insurers have already reduced competition and options in Connecticut. This leaves plan sponsors, like businesses and unions, with fewer options—and consumers with higher costs. Adding to these burdensome mandates, like prohibiting critical tools that contain costs or imposing added assessments, could force more health insurers to stop offering plans in our state, ultimately creating a spiral toward no remaining competition — increasing the likelihood for politicians to rush toward the creation of a government-controlled system to fill the void.
Either path leads to the same end, and both would be costly for Connecticut’s businesses, communities, and residents.
When the State of Washington tried to implement a state government-run public option, premium costs rose, with some public option plans costing 29 percent more than private plans and on average 11 percent higher than the lowest available silver plans. Colorado’s public option system resulted in an exodus of providers from the state and fewer plans for consumers to select between. Colorado saw a 37.7 percent decrease in the number of available plans in most counties, with four major providers leaving the state entirely.
A previous proposal to directly implement a similar government-controlled health insurance system in Connecticut was the subject of a 2022 study conducted by KNG Health Care Consulting, which found a state government public option in Connecticut could increase premiums, but could also increase taxes. No one in Connecticut, especially not the small business community and the Chambers of Commerce that represent them, would benefit from higher taxes, rising costs, and decreased access to care. Whether by gradual attrition or direct intervention, the pursuit of a state-government-controlled health insurance system would threaten the momentum Connecticut has achieved to build a more prosperous future.
Legislators should reject both paths and instead find ways to reduce costs, increase competition, and improve access to care by working with — not against — the private sector. Listening to and strongly considering the perspectives of local businesses, including the many voices of Chamber members across the state, is crucial to ensuring Connecticut’s continued economic resurgence.
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CTHealthNews.com has partnered with the Central Connecticut Chambers of Commerce to bring you this sponsored content.
