Gov. Jodi Rell, facing a Democratic challenger who has made universal health care a centerpiece of his campaign, said she has no plans to present her own plan to cover Connecticut’s estimated 370,000 uninsured people.
Asked about health care during a local campaign stop Friday, Gov. Rell said she saw no need to propose reform. “We’ll just be talking about what we’ve already been doing” in the fall campaign, she said.
Health care began the central issue in the Democratic gubernatorial primary campaign this month. Dan Malloy, who lost the Democratic gubernatorial nomination to John DeStefano, Jr., put children’s health in focus with a plan for the state’s children in January. DeStefano followed with a sweeping proposal for universal health care. Malloy followed with his own version.
Rell Friday did not indicate there was any need for reform.
Asked if she intended to propose a plan to address estimated Connecticut’s uninsured, Rell spoke only of existing programs. She responded: “One of the things I know that many people have been talking about is children in our state. A lot of people are not aware that every child in the state of Connecticut is already covered under the HUSKY B plan. I think there’s a lot of misinformation out there.
“One of the things that we know is that some people will not, or for whatever reason have not, enrolled children, but it makes no difference about income level. Of course, you have to pay a little bit more if you have a higher income to insure children. [But] Every child in Connecticut is already allowed to be insured.”
Would she be addressing the matter along the campaign trail? “We’ll be talking more, obviously, about other health care access and possible initiatives” but she did not intend to release a plan for health care reform. “We’ll just be talking about what we’ve already been doing and some of the things we want to continue to do.”
The DeStefano campaign, gearing up for a November general election against popular Rell, responded: “We haven’t heard anything from her on health care. Everyone in the state acknowledges that there’s a health care crisis, that the current system isn’t working, that tens of thousands of kids aren’t getting access to care. Everyone acknowledges that the system is broken except Governor Rell.”
