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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

New Insurance for Those with Pre-Existing Conditions in CT

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Monday, August 2, 2010   

HARTFORD, Conn. - While waiting for new national health coverage to begin in 2014 for adults with pre-existing conditions, many states, including Connecticut, have just established their own, temporary insurance plans. Jennifer Jaff, executive director of the Connecticut-based group Advocacy for Patients with Chronic Illness, says children with pre-existing conditions are already covered. She explains which adults are eligible.

"It is not available to people who currently have insurance, because the idea is that this is a temporary stop-gap measure for people who have been uninsured for a long time and can't get insurance due to a pre-existing condition."

She says the cost will average $500 per month, about half what it is under the existing high-risk pool coverage, but still out of reach for many with pre-existing conditions.

Jaff says Governor Jodi Rell decided the premiums were too high, and wanted to offer premiums and benefits similar to her Charter Oak health insurance plan. She explains what happened after discussions with the federal Department of Health and Human Services, which is footing the bill.

"They ended up slashing the premiums substantially for the Connecticut pre-existing-condition insurance plan. This has me extremely worried, because in order to slash premiums, you have to have cut benefits somewhere."

A spokesman for Governor Rell says her office and HHS used a different method to negotiate lower premiums, based on small group rates and varying by age, and that there is no change from what was previously proposed, either for benefits or out-of-pocket costs that are not premiums.

Jaff says these developments are not perfect, but they're a big step in the right direction, leading toward an even better outcome in the near future.

"In 2014, we will no longer have a society that is divided between healthy people and sick people. Everybody, regardless of health status, will be able to buy insurance."

Registration for Connecticut's program opened over the weekend. Coverage begins 30 days after registration. It will cover hospitalization, outpatient doctor visits, and prescription drugs.


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