Thursday, April 24, 2008

We're all State Employees Now

By John LaPlante

Categories: Connecticut

The Connecticut Legislature is debating an unusual way of helping small businesses obtain health insurance--make them state employees.

Actually, the proposal by Rep. Chris Donovan isn't to put small business employees on the payroll, but to let them buy into the health insurance plan of state employees. Local government employees would get that option, too.

Advocates of the idea claim that by expanding the number of people in the pool, it will lower costs. The companies that cover state workers aren't convinced, saying they reserve the right to recalculate rates upward should the idea pass.

This idea has some merit if you look at it very casually. But it also puts the state in the position of determining what a "proper" insurance policy looks like, even more so than is the case when it regulates what happens in the private market. When that fact is combined with the dynamics of the political process, problems loom, including yet another step towards politicizing all of life.