Connecticut- Lawmakers Face Tough Policy Decisions On Basic Health Plan

Over the next few months the legislature will have to tackle some tough policy questions about whether to create a State Basic Health Plan for about 74,000 low income adults, who make too much money to qualify for Medicaid.

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Some of those unknowns still remain because the plan would largely be based on the “Essential Health Benefits Package,” which the Insurance Exchange Board has yet to develop.

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He said the Exchange Board first has to set the “Essential Health Benefits Package“ before the department is able to decide whether there would be enough subsidies to support such a plan.

“In that light, while it’s premature for us to have a position for or against the BHP, the administration is certainly considering it in the context of the Exchange and other health reform efforts,” Dearborn said.

But some advocates are sold on the idea of a State Basic Health Plan and Tercyak is one of them.

He said with the exchange still being largely private insurance many of the people who would be in this plan instead of that plan will protect private insurance companies from seeing their costs increase.

“The basic health plan helps protect the insurance companies,” Tercyak said. “So that there plans in the exchange can be reasonably priced.”

http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/ctnj.php/archives/entry/lawmakers_face_tough_policy_decisions_on_basic_health_plan
Hat tip: Connecticut News Junkie