March’s CT Health Reform
Dashboard update reflects good, bad and uncertain policy movement in CT and
DC. Most troubling is the level
of mistrust among stakeholders in our state’s health system first
recognized formally by out-of-state consultants to the Health Care Cabinet.
This problem undermines even well-intentioned efforts to make progress, that
otherwise would receive universal support. Other issues affecting the dashboard
include proposals to cut Medicaid both in CT and DC, and recent
erosions in the new Medicaid payment experiment with disappointing plans
for a weak, late evaluation of the first wave, undermining consumer notices to accommodate
conflicted ACOs, and efforts to make MAPOC committees irrelevant. In good news,
leadership-sponsored bills to control drug costs and Cabinet deliberations have
legs, and the most controversial Cabinet recommendations are not reflected in
legislative proposals.
