AROUND NEW ENGLAND A loss for Conn.'s health care policy

The following editorial was published by Hearst Connecticut Media on Aug. 31:

As Connecticut prepares for another round of debate over the rising cost of health insurance, it will be doing so without one of the state's main assets in the field. Ted Doolittle, who for the past seven years has served as head of the state's Office of the Healthcare Advocate, is leaving his position to become a federal Immigration judge.

Doolittle is not widely known among the public, but his role is critical. Health care is an enormous expense for many people, and its workings are difficult to parse. It's complicated and changes every year. The public needs all the help it can get it navigating this system, one that also happens to be essential to the state economy, and Doolittle has done admirable work helping people through that process.

In his role, he helped pass a law requiring plain-language notifications from insurers in the event of denials. He has worked to make the system more accessible to regular people. And he fought to keep rate increases lower, which was frequently an uphill battle but one that did achieve some successes over the years.

The fight is ongoing. State insurance regulators are currently considering whether to approve double-digit rate hikes for 2024 health plans, and state Senate leadership is proposing new regulations to make the process more transparent. Under a recently introduced proposal, state officials would be required to consider consumer affordability when weighing future increases.

That seems like the minimum that should be required. But it's no sure thing it will get passed.

Health care has seen numerous reforms enacted over the years, and it's fair for the public to ask why it's still so unaffordable and opaque. There are a variety of reasons, but one is that even when reforms are passed, efforts are taken to bypass and undercut those new rules. On leaving his position, Doolittle is warning the state about just such an effort.

Much has been made over the years on protections for preexisting conditions passed under the Affordable Care Act, which enjoy wide support among the public. But as Doolittle warns, there is a rising prevalence of what are called "level-funded plans," which evade the ACA's pre-existing conditions protections.

"State policymakers in Connecticut and around the country need to wake up and grapple with this nasty reality," Doolittle said. It's a fight sure to continue in Connecticut and beyond in years to come.

Health insurance doesn't have to be as complicated as it is, but Connecticut, with the historical power of the insurance industry, has proven a difficult place for large-scale change. There are thousands of good-paying jobs in the industry that state leaders are worried about jeopardizing, which has repeatedly doomed a so-called public option even as a majority of state legislators have worked toward passing it.

But the expense and complications of health coverage aren't going away, either. The state owes it to its citizens to make the entire process easier and more affordable. Whoever takes over as the new health care advocate in Hartford on a permanent basis will have a vitally important job.