Like the last two months, November’s CT’s Health Reform Dashboard
has changed little. Growing and understandable mistrust remains at the core of
problems in CT. Medicaid policy development and implementation is still mired
in mistrust, incomprehensible and misleading consumer “notices”, rushing ahead
without data, quality problems, and a lack of transparency while state
officials refuse to answer questions. CT’s Health IT quagmire gets worse. The
state budget is terrible causing thousands more working parents to lose
coverage. At the federal level, ACA protections and supports are in jeopardy,
Medicaid is not secure, and the budget is also terrible. The Health Care
Cabinet workgroups continue digging into our work to control drug costs in CT,
but we need to up the game and be sure reforms address the total cost of
medications to the entire system. Consumers understand that we pay the entire
bill – premiums, taxes, and lost wages – not just out-of-pocket costs. Saving
in one area just adds costs in another – and we end up paying more in the end
anyway.
