Health insurance bill dies in legislature
HARTFORD, Conn. --Health care advocates are not giving up their attempt to force
The legislature's Finance Revenue and Bonding Committee failed to act on the proposal by their deadline, but proponents say they'll resurrect the bill next session.
"We're obviously really disappointed, but this is a long struggle. It's a really long struggle and we've known that all the way along," said Beverley Brakeman, director of Citizens for Economic Opportunity, a labor and citizen community action group.
"We're not going to go away," she added.
The bill would have required Connecticut retailers with more than 5,000 employees in the state to pay at least $2.50 per worker per hour for health insurance or contribute the difference to the state, which would use the money to offset state-funded insurance.
The state's largest business organization, the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, strongly opposed the legislation. It claimed the bill would hurt job growth in Connecticut.
"The legislature as a whole has been remarking since before the start of session that they wanted to turn Connecticut's economic climate around," said Bonnie Stewart, counsel for CBIA. "I think the fact that the committee didn't even take it up was a good message that people are serious about trying to turn around our economic situation."
Similar bills backed by organized labor are being proposed in about 30 states this year.
Maryland and Suffolk County, N.Y. passed the first so-called fair share bills. But Brakeman said enthusiasm in Connecticut waned this year after a retail trade association filed lawsuits seeking to block the state and local governments from enforcing such laws.
Connecticut's top two legislative leaders have not voiced strong support for the legislation.
"It makes it more challenging," Brakeman said. "I still think we got it pretty far ... It's always harder to do big, big issues like that in an election year and in a short session like this one."
Sen. Eileen Daily, D-Westbrook, co-chairwoman of the Finance Committee, said her panel ran out of time to act on the bill. However, she said there were also worries about how the legislation was written.
"I think there was general concern about the bill and about something that contentious when the session is such a short session," she said. This year's session ends on May 3.
Daily said she expects the advocates will be back, possibly this session, with a revised proposal that mirrors the health insurance law passed in Massachusetts. Gov. Mitt Romney signed legislation this week designed to guarantee coverage for virtually all residents by July 2007, including an estimated 550,000 people who are now uninsured.
"I do think the Massachusetts plan is a far better plan," Daily said. "When everybody has some responsibility, it's just a fairer way to do things."
Last year, a state report showed Wal-Mart, Stop & Shop and Dunkin' Donuts topped a list of companies with workers who use the state's HUSKY insurance program for low-income children and their parents. That prompted health insurance advocates to push for legislation retiring retailers to provide coverage.
