SAM CALIGIURI ANNOUNCES PLAN FOR GREATER HEALTH CARE ACCESS

     State senate candidate Sam Caligiuri announced his plans for helping the uninsured gain access to affordable health care.  Caligiuri, who is running in the 16th senatorial district (Southington, Waterbury, Chesire and Wolcott), says the answer to the health care crisis in Connecticut is access for all through a partnership between the public and private sectors. 

“Other than taxes and high gas prices, access to affordable heath care is the issue about which I hear the most from the people I meet.  Every person in Connecticut must have access to health care if we are going to retain our high quality of life in the state,” Caligiuri stated. 

    “The good news is that most people in Connecticut have health insurance.  The bad news is that the vast majority of people who are uninsured are gainfully employed,” Caligiuri stressed.  He cited findings from the State of Connecticut Office of Health Care Access (“OHCA”) showing that approximately 96 percent of Connecticut residents have health insurance but that nearly two-thirds of uninsured adults are gainfully employed.  In addition, OHCA found that the smaller the employer, the less likely it was to offer health insurance.

Based on these findings, Caligiuri stressed that state policy should focus on the essence of the problem, which is the fact that people working for themselves and smaller businesses are unable to gain access to health insurance because it is prohibitively expensive when purchased by individuals and small groups.  Caligiuri says if he is elected he will focus on three principles for dealing with this problem.  First, creating a state wide insurance purchasing pool for small businesses and uninsured adults. second, offering tax incentives for small businesses and individuals to participate in this purchasing pool.  Third, ensuring that the HUSKY program covers other individuals who could not otherwise have access to health insurance.

Caligiuri also expressed his opposition to the so-called single-payer proposal, which amounts to a government takeover of our health care system.  The Connecticut General Assembly considered and rejected single-payer legislation last year.  During consideration of that bill, SB 482, the Connecticut Department of Social Services opposed the legislation, arguing that it would abolish private insurance and Medicaid and replace it with a government run system that has not been adopted anywhere else in the United States.  Earlier this year, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have created a government run health care system in that state, calling it a “serious and expensive mistake.”

“We must reject this radical and unnecessary solution, which would devastate our economy and give far too much power to the government.  We must give every person access to health care, but we can do that without implementing such a dangerous scheme,” Caligiuri concluded.

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