Folks at the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN) advocacy group just notified the Blogster that Tom Foley, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, has agreed to join Democrat Dannel Malloy and Independent Tom Marsh tomorrow night in Middletown to discuss education policy. The event will be held at Macdonough Elementary School.
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Archive for 2010New Q Poll on U.S. Senate Race Will Come Out Early Tomorrow. How Close Can World Wrestling Entertainment’s Linda McMahon Get?Quinnipiac University Poll Director Douglas Schwartz, Ph.D., tomorrow will release the latest survey of likely voters and their preferences for U.S. Senate. The Blogster wonder how close Linda McMahon, of the WWE McMahons, can get to Attorney General Dick Blumenthal. The last poll showed that McMahon was within 6 points, turning it into a horse race. The Rasmussen Report today indicates it’s even closer. Here is their release.
“Election 2010: Connecticut Senate: Gap Between Blumenthal (D), McMahon (R) Narrowest Since May Rasmussen Reports September 27, 2010 Democrat Richard Blumenthal now holds just a five-point lead over Republican Linda McMahon in Connecticut’s race for the U.S. Senate. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in the state finds Blumenthal with 50% support and McMahon with 45% when leaners are included. One percent (1%) favor some other candidate, and three percent (3%) are undecided. To see survey questions, click here. The race remains Leans Democrat in the Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 Senate Balance of Power rankings. This is the closest the race has been since May when the New York Times detailed in an article how Blumenthal has been embellishing his military record in public statements over the years. This statewide telephone survey of 500 Likely Voters in Connecticut was conducted on September 9, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/-4.5 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.”  Forget the Chocolate-Covered Bacon. This Year It’s Chocolate-Covered Jalapenos (?!?!?!) at the Big EYeah, the bacon was pretty disgusting, in a tasty, sort of heart-stopping, gloriously self-destructive way. Don’t worry, that’s still there, but this year, cocoa heads might want to consider chocolate-covered jalapeno pepperss at the Big E in Springfield. Call them Montezuma’s Sweet Revenge, with their seeds and all. The Blogster doesn’t have to say anymore, does he? Yesterday was Connecticut Day and Gov. Jodi Rell led her final parade, along with her local grandchild, son Mike Rell’s youngster, waving to the crowd. An estimated 50,000 people stomped through the Connecticut Pavilion. That’s a tad crowded… Foley, Malloy, Like Late-Season Dragonflies, Lock in Death Spiral Over Health-Care Campaign Turf.Ah yes. We must be past Labor Day, for the gubernatorial race is moving apace, with nearly daily engagements between Democrat Dannel Malloy and Republican Tom Foley. Here’s Foley’s proposal today for the future of Connecticut health care, followed by Malloy’s reaction: “Connecticut’s health care system provides excellent health care to most of its citizens and it is an important contributor to our economy. However, the cost of delivering health care in Connecticut is higher than in almost every other state in the country. The high cost of health care puts a strain on our state’s budget and burdens employers and individuals with high health insurance costs. These high costs strain family budgets and drive jobs out of the state. Good health care policy in Connecticut should focus on improving the quality and accessibility of health care services while driving health care costs down.
Health care services collectively account for one-sixth of Connecticut’s economy and one third of Connecticut’s state budget. The state spends nearly $7 billion a year on health care through Medicaid, employee benefits for active and retired state employees, and state sponsored insurance programs. Although Connecticut has extended coverage to over 90 percent of our citizens, we still have basic coverage and insurance affordability issues that need to be addressed. The recently enacted federal bill will largely define how those issues will be handled. State-based plans for expanding coverage need to be tabled until we understand the structure and impact of the federal plan. Our health care focus near term in Connecticut needs to be on lowering costs, improving quality, and improving the health status of our citizens.
As Governor, I will set three broad goals for state action:
1. Become the healthiest state in the country by 2020, as measured by national data.
The very best way to lower health care costs and raise quality of life is to help people stay healthy, yet this is rarely a target of public policy. It is estimated that 75% of health spending is on diseases caused at least in part by lifestyle choices. The immediate targets for a state-based wellness initiative should be reducing obesity, smoking, and drug and alcohol abuse while improving fitness. Connecticut is rated in the top ten on health status among the states—we should set our sights on being number 1.
2. Reduce the cost of delivering health care services in Connecticut by 10% over five years adjusted for inflation.
Health care costs in Connecticut are some of the highest in the country. To solve our budget deficit challenge and keep from driving even more jobs from Connecticut, we must drive down the cost of health care. In addition to promoting better health to lower costs, Connecticut must take the initiative to promote electronic record keeping, transition more consumers from fee for service based care to pay for performance based care, develop more community-based care options for our elderly and disabled populations, give consumers a stake in the economics of their care choices, provide incentives for consumers not to use emergency rooms for non-emergency care, improve the way victims of medical malpractice and medical errors are compensated, and authorize an affordable, ‘core needs’ insurance plan that is exempt from state mandates for those who cannot afford state mandated plans.
3. Improve the quality of care in Connecticut.
Although the quality of care in Connecticut is good, it can be improved. The biggest opportunities to improve the quality of care will come from reducing medical errors, encouraging more evidence-based medicine, driving consumers to primary care providers who oversee their overall healthcare needs, and transitioning patients away from fee for services care and toward performance based care.
As Governor, I will take the following early action steps to improve Connecticut’s health care system:
1. Place a moratorium on the enactment of new private health insurance benefit mandates.
2. Allow small companies which have not previously provided health insurance, and any company whose health insurance costs exceed a defined percent of payroll, to elect coverage under a ‘core needs’ plan to be set by the Insurance Commissioner which is focused on basic care needs and is exempt from state mandates.
3. Place the current state Medicaid program for the aged, blind and disabled into a modern managed care framework.
4. Adopt a three-year goal and program to orient state Medicaid for the elderly away from nursing home care to more cost effective home and community-based care. The state should use some of the savings to raise Medicaid reimbursement rates for nursing homes so that nursing homes can provide a higher level of care and invest more in their facilities.
5. Develop and promote wellness with an emphasis on reducing obesity and smoking while improving fitness. Consider state incentives to school districts to deliver healthy breakfast and lunch programs, and incentives to employers for similar wellness programs. Create an awards program for employers who successfully promote wellness.
6. Reform medical malpractice arrangements and lower costs in Connecticut by piloting special health courts, working with providers to establish standards of care which, if followed, provide a ‘safe harbor’ against malpractice suits, and using state muscle to weed out bad actors and repeat offenders.
7. Assist doctors, hospitals and other providers to partner in integrated delivery systems of care that are paid in ways that provide incentives for improved quality, customer service, and cost effectiveness. Promote e-health initiatives. Use state Medicaid and public employee benefit programs to help lead these innovations. Over the long term, the best opportunity to lower costs and improve quality is to reorient the health care delivery system away from its current costly fee-for-service care model. Numerous initiatives are underway, under terms like Medical Home, Accountable Care Organizations, pay-for-performance, and bundled or full-risk payments. The state must be an advocate and convener across public and private programs to press for these changes, and must use its own programs to accelerate progress.
8. Work, where possible, to eliminate market-distorting cost-shifting from public insurance plans such as Medicare and Medicaid to medical service providers and private consumers.
Nearly $30 billion a year is spent in Connecticut on health care. This is both a liability and an opportunity. It is a liability because health care services in Connecticut are very expensive which adds to our fiscal problems and costs the state jobs. It is an opportunity because health care services can be exported and be a large contributor to our economy providing jobs and economic growth. As Connecticut’s next Governor, Tom Foley will place a high priority on improving the health of our citizens while lowering the cost and improving the quality of healthcare services in Connecticut.”
Malloy Responds to Foley’s Plan: “This isn’t a health care plan, it’s a lifeline to the insurance companies and HMOs that got us into this mess in the first place. I have a fundamental belief that health care is something everyone should have – Tom Foley apparently disagrees. “He proposes a moratorium on benefit mandates to private insurance carriers. What does this mean? That the state would no longer be able to ensure coverage for patients with existing conditions. I suppose taking wigs away from cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy wasn’t far enough – Tom wants to take their insurance too. “Tom proposes placing ‘the current state Medicaid program for the aged, blind and disabled into a modern managed care framework.’ That’s a nice way of saying that Tom will add one more layer of fee-driven bureaucracy for our seniors and disabled to have to muddle through in their attempt to receive care. “Of course, none of this should be terribly surprising. This is a candidate who believes that health reform is a ‘bad deal’ because enough Connecticut residents already have coverage. Tom Foley apparently isn’t concerned about the more than 400,000 Connecticut residents who don’t have health insurance.” Malloy’s health care plan, which he announced in June, can be read at http://www.danmalloy.com/policy/health_care. What’s All That Digging Going On At The Capitol? “Green Capitols” Will Channel Water Away From Storm Sewers
There are few things the Blogster likes better than covering the quarterly meetings of the Capitol Preservation and Restoration Commission. Few people ever attend the meetings of the commission, who get briefed on a variety of topics and whose biggest claim to fame over the last year was placing The Genius of Connecticut statue in the Capitol rotunda instead of a warehouse. So this month, this is what we learned:
While the sign says it’s funded in half by a “state grant” and half by a “state loan,” Eric Connery, the Capitol facilities director, said in reality, half the money was federal Clean Water Act funds and half is a matching grant from the Metropolitan District Commission, the Hartford area water and sewage district. “I’m not sure why they’re calling DEP funds a loan, but there is no requirement to pay the money back,” Connery said.
How Many Bites of the Apple for Gov. Rell? All of ThemJust in case you think Gov. Jodi Rell isn’t watching out for you, consider the news release from her office a few minutes ago proclaiming that she has signed an executive order banning the controversial “gas blow” procedure at natural gas power plants. Yesterday, after a state commission recommended such a tactic – months after the deaths of six construction workers in Middletown last February – the governor announced that she was drafting such an order. So today, she wants more news coverage of the actual event. This reminds the Blogster of an old saying by Mark Twain, paraphrased here: First you tell them what you will tell them; then you tell them; then you tell them what you told them. It’s 4 p.m. and Rell is up in Springfield, about to march in her final “Connecticut Day” parade at the Big E, at 5 p.m. State employees still have enough time to drive up there and join her. State Auditors: Div of Special Revenue Employees Abuse Phone, Vehicle PrivilegesThe Auditors of Public Accounts Wednesday morning issued a review of the state Division of Special Revenue, which controls lottery games, bingo and OTB operations. They found at least two separate instances of division employees “abusing” state time and vehicles that were “not promptly” reported to state officials as required by law. They also found “numerous instances of personal long distance calls” made by staff. “We found that two employees seemed to have a significant number of such calls to out-of-state locations,” said the report. Also among the 16 recommendations, auditors found that more than two years after a deadline to establ;ished regulations on bingo games for partent teacher organizations, the division has still failed to comply. It is almost three years past a deadline to draw up regs for so-called tuition raffles. The division, in response, said it has submitted regulations to the governor’s office for approval. On the apparent abuses of state vehicles, the agency said it “understands the issue and we will comply.” On the long-distance phone abuses paid by you, state taxpayers, the agency said its senior managers will meet “and discuss” policies and publish a new one “which will better reflect what is acceptable and what would be considered an abuse. Frequent and lengthy personal phone calls will be considered an abuse and not allowed.” Doesn’t that just make you feel assured that changes are coming to the Division of Special Revenue? DMV Commish Bob Ward is Also a Member of the Organ (Recipient) ClubTomorrow, the Department of Motor Vehicles will announce Connecticut’s millionth organ and tissue donor. During a news conference in the agency’s Wethersfield HQ, DMV Commissioner Robert Ward will share his own story of becoming a kidney recipient from his brother. The event, co-sponsored by Donate Life Connecticut, which raises awareness on organ and tissue donation, will start at 10 at 60 State Street. |
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