Editor: I urge the editorial board of this paper to reconsider their recent position on the Connecticut Healthcare Partnership bill that Governor Rell is expected to act on this week. They should look beyond the rhetoric of the Connecticut Business and Industry Association and instead consider the potential savings to the communities served by the Chronicle. 

I am a member of CSEA/SEIU Local 2001, and we have long advocated "pooling" Connecticut's municipal, public schools, and other public employees into the State healthcare plan. The partnership is our best opportunity in seventeen years to join the ranks of twenty-four other states that have successfully "pooled" public service workers together in a single health plan to reduce costs, expand coverage, and help offset property taxes.

Participation in the Partnership is voluntary. If a town or district can negotiate a plan with lower costs on their own, they may continue to do so. The version of the bill passed overwhelmingly by the General Assembly also makes the plan available to employees of non-profits service providers and small businesses.

Connecticut's State employee health plan covers about 200,000 lives, provides excellent access, and is affordable for its workers. The State, as the employer, bears a much more reasonable cost when compared to other employers, public and private alike, whose healthcare expenses are skyrocketing. Under current practice, insurance companies like Anthem negotiate separate insurance plans with municipal and board of education employees.

Those plans offer varying degrees of accessibility, and often at a higher cost to both employees and their employers. The wages of many paraeducators like myself have barely kept pace with increases in taxes and health insurance costs. The result is that many paras spend at least a third of their salary on coverage for themselves and their families.

This legislation has the possibility to provide municipalities, non-profits and small businesses access to the same or better coverage at a lower cost. Savings from reduced healthcare costs can be utilized to offset property tax increases and local service cuts to our local towns and boards of education.

The Chronicle's editorial board should not to be swayed by an industry willing to put its selfish interests above the best interests of Connecticut's working families.

Sharon HagansColumbia