Obama administration makes its case for health care change, citing problems here

 

By Don Michak
Journal Inquirer

Published: Friday, July 3, 2009 9:09 AM EDT

 

The Obama administration says affordable health insurance coverage is “increasingly out of reach” in Connecticut and that the state’s residents need higher quality, greater value, and more preventative care.

In one of a series of “reports” aimed at boosting the administration’s health care initiative, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services cites a score of government statistics about Connecticut it says highlight the urgent need for changes in the national health care system.

“In states across the country, health care costs are going up and families are struggling to get the quality care they need and deserve,” health and human services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said. “We cannot wait to pass reform that protects what works about health care and fixes what’s broken.”

Among the findings:

• Average family health insurance premiums in Connecticut — which average $14,365 or “about the annual earnings of a full-time minimum-wage job” — have increased by 98 percent since 2000.

• Nearly a fifth of middle-income Connecticut families spend more than 10 percent of their income on health care, and high costs mean that 9 percent of people in Connecticut report not visiting a doctor.

• The share of state residents with employer-provided coverage declined from 72 percent to 68 percent between 2000 and 2007, with much of the decline among workers in small businesses.

• The uninsured make up 9 percent of the state’s population, and 66 percent of them are in families with at least one full-time worker.

• Connecticut businesses and families shoulder a “hidden health tax” of roughly $700 per year on premiums “as a direct result of subsidizing the cost of the uninsured.”

The agency also says the choice of health care insurance is limited in Connecticut, with Wellcare Inc., the Blue Cross and Blue Shield provider, capturing 55 percent of the market in which the top two providers account for 66 percent.

Moreover, it says choice is “even more limited” for people with pre-existing conditions, because premiums in Connecticut can vary based on demographic factors and health status, and coverage can exclude pre-existing conditions or even be denied completely.

Finally, the report scores the overall quality of care in Connecticut as “average” and says preventative measures that could keep residents healthier and out of the hospital are “deficient.”

It says 13 percent of children here are obese, that 15 percent of women over the age of 50 haven’t gotten a mammogram in the past two years, and that 30 percent of men over the age of 50 never have had a colorectal cancer screening.