Consumer Conversations: CT’s Health Insurance Exchange (Friday a.m.)

by CTNewsjunkie Staff | Oct 24, 2012 1:18pm
(1) Comment | Commenting has expired
Posted to: Business, Civil Liberties, Equality, Health Care, Glastonbury

Healthcare advocates and small business owners are invited to attend a free talk Friday morning on the Connecticut Health Insurance Exchange, which is being developed under the Affordable Care Act and is due to launch in 2014.

The keynote speaker will be Kevin Counihan, CEO of Connecticut’s insurance exchange. He will be joined by Christie Hager, regional director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The event, which will take place Oct. 26, 8:30-11 a.m. at the Pond House Grille in Glastonbury, is being organized by Kevin Galvin, president of the Small Business For A Healthy Connecticut, and Ellen Andrews, executive director of the Connecticut Health Policy Project. There is no admission charge for health care advocates or small business owners.

“It’s an opportunity for health care advocates and small businesses owners to have a one-on-one conversation with Kevin Counihan about what to expect from the Connecticut Health Insurance Exchange,” Galvin said.

Galvin and Andrews have been writing about the exchange and access to affordable care at the CT Health Insurance Exchange Watch blog.

Connecticut’s exchange is supposed to be a fair, user-friendly marketplace for consumers and small businesses to buy insurance coverage, but its board does not include any independent consumer representative and is dominated by insurance interests.

Click here to register for the event.

Tags: connecticut conversations, connecticut health insurance exchange, Kevin Counihan, Christie Hager, Affordable Care Act, Insurance, Kevin Galvin, Ellen Andrews, healthcare, dh

Comment

posted by: Noteworthy | October 25, 2012  7:50am

This “conversation” is going to be a lecture - a one way listening meeting and it won’t be the powers in control of the Exchange that will be listening. The Exchange Board is completely dominated by the insurance industry and with the Exchange’s decision not to negotiate rates and coverages with the insurance companies on behalf of Connecticut’s consumers, we are sure to be screwed, blued and tatooed. It’s a sham and a shame. This is the story of just about everything in Connecticut - it’s not that we lack for money. It’s that those in control don’t want to give us any value for what we pay.