Dodd/DeLauro health reform event

Saturday Sen. Dodd and Rep. DeLauro hosted a well-attended town hall discussion on national health care reform at Griffin Hospital in Derby. Nancy-Ann DeParle, Director of the White House Office of Health Reform, was the invited speaker. It was good theater, but there was little concrete information about what they are considering, how it might work in CT, or really anything meaningful about policy plans. The event was interrupted by protestors advocating for a single-payer plan, however that sentiment and its relative, support for a public plan option, was spread across most in the room, including two of the only three physicians in this year’s Yale Medical School class considering family medicine. Many in the room wanted to hear some specifics about what is being considered behind closed doors, including individual and employer mandates, affordability standards, oversight, state vs. federal roles, that public plan option, insurance market reforms, and other critical design decisions that will determine if this program works in the real world. Unfortunately, the speakers offered little substantive information. Ms. DeParle did close by saying that she heard strong support for a public plan option, modeled on the traditional Medicare program.
Ellen Andrews