CT hospitals chief sees little good in state and federal actions
Unresolved issues at both the state and federal level have left
"I don't see a lot of good news out there, truthfully," he told the
Chief among Murphy's concerns is the ongoing legal battle between most of the state's hospitals under the
While the state has asked a judge to dismiss the CHA lawsuit filed in 2016 in
At issue is the fact that the biennial state budget passed last year increases taxes on hospitals by nearly double, from
Every state but
But the CHA still maintains that the hospital tax violates the
"The level of reimbursement is so low that access to adequate care can be a problem," Murphy said, "as it becomes difficult to find insurance providers willing to accept these rates."
Murphy said the
He also noted that the state has regularly applied its hospital tax receipts to help balance the state budget.
"We are not trying to bankrupt the state of
Murphy said he hoped a court date would be set during this calendar year.
Meanwhile, the
Meanwhile, the
Murphy expressed satisfaction that the legislators would prove good on their word, dismissing opponents' viewpoints as "misinformation or gamesmanship. If for some reason there is no funding, it will once again be the frail in our society who are left without appropriate coverage."
That concern also formed the bedrock of Murphy's objections to the new federal tax law's elimination of the individual health care mandate established by the Affordable Care Act and the repeated efforts by the Trump administration and congressional
"The average person in their 20s, 30s or even older may feel they're healthy enough that they don't want to be bothered with buying health insurance," Murphy said of the mandate. "And now there's no penalty. But that population can still suffer a serious accident or severe injury where the costs can be staggering."
Even discounting that eventuality, Murphy said that it will be older and sicker patients who will be seeking to purchase health insurance, "and their costs will inexorably rise because they're a riskier population."
Murphy noted that in November the
Murphy also decried the federal government's ending of the ACA's cost-sharing reduction program, which reduced individuals' health insurance payments if they met certain criteria. The end result again will be more people going without insurance, he said.
"We're looking at tens of millions of dollars" lost by providing essentially free care to uninsured patients, Murphy said. "All of this is a step backwards from where we were even in 2010," when the Affordable Care Act went into effect.
As for repealing the АСА entirely, Murphy doubted that
Should the midterm elections later this year put
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