New Haven Independent

Fabianski (pictured) was the clean-up hitter at a Greater New Haven rally Tuesday evening to urge people to contact the governor to ask her to sign two bills that passed in late May in the state House and Senate.

In the past Rell has vetoed similar legislation.

One of the two bills awaiting the governor’s signature would create a state-backed comprehensive plan called SustiNet (H.B. 6600). SustiNet aims to bring about universal health care through, among other features, cost-cutting, digitization of medical records, and an expansion of a government health insurance program to bring in employees of not-for-profits and many others who are uninsured or underinsured right now. (People would have a choice of choosing the new plan or sticking with an older private plan.)

The second bill (H.B. 6582), the Health Care Partnership, would also allow municipalities, non-profits, and small businesses to join the state employees’ health insurance pool, cutting everyone’s costs in the process.

State Rep. Steve Fontana said Tuesday that he expects the bills to be delivered to Gov. Rell by Monday, June 22; she’ll have 15 days to sign them, veto them, or do nothing and let them become law.

The last-minute push to get Rell on board at the Tuesday rally on the North Haven Green featured tales of how these nitty-gritty legislative details affect real people’s lives. Like Fabianski’s.

Fabianski said other family members recently lost their jobs and their health coverage, or had no coverage to begin with. She has a pre-existing medical condition and could never get health coverage on her own. Luckily her husband is still working and has insurance.

“Why can’t we have health insurance that’s fair for everybody?” she asked. “I’m not against paying — I’ll pay my fair share.”

She went on to compare reduced health care savings through bigger pools to the savings shoppers achieve at big box stores. That’s the pooling concept in a nutshell. If that doesn’t make it past Jodi Rell’s desk, Fabianski suggested taking up reform on the town level, or through a consortium of towns.

“Let’s not just give people basic health insurance; let’s give them good health insurance,” she suggested, to applause from the 30 or so people gathered.

Later, she told a reporter, “People who have no money, they’re taken care of, and people with money can take care of themselves. It’s just the middle class who get messed up. Also, there could be a lot of people not retiring, because they have the money to retire, but they don’t have the money for health care and retirement. Think about how many jobs would open up” if people who wanted to retire, could.

The event was emceed by North Haven State Rep. Fontana (pictured). He said he was inspired to run for office 15 years ago, after the Clinton health care debacle, specifically to work on health care reform. Now, as co-chair of the General Assembly’s Insurance and Real Estate Committee, he has been providing leadership on just this issue. His committee co-chair, State Sen. Joe Crisco, also stopped by the rally to lend his support.

After the brief speeches, members of Health Care 4 All passed out fliers asking those present and their friends and family members to contact Gov. Rell by phone at 800-406-1527 or email here to urge her to sign both bills.