Policy turns into an Internal Party Rift
What started as a typical Insurance & Real Estate committee meeting turned into a morning of might. Rumors started to fly the night before when key substitute language for a huge bill on the topic of the public option for healthcare insurance was not available to the Chairs, Republican leaders or committee members that there was trouble in River City.
To give some background, there are three healthcare reform proposals before the legislature - SB 842 (the Senate Democrats version also supported by State Comptroller Kevin Lembo (D)), SB 1006 (the Senate Republican version) and HB 6447 (the Governor’s version known as ‘Covered Connecticut’) all making their way through the various committee hurdles. Each proposal has pieces that the many stakeholders (including physicians, insurance companies, labor unions, pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies hospitals, advocates for patients, persons with disability and elderly groups to name a few) love and hate. Yesterday, SB 842 was the #1 agenda item before the committee for a recommended joint favorable substitute language (JFS) action even though the substitute language had not been discussed or seen by both the Democratic chairs and Republican ranking leaders. That started the first boil up.
When the language surfaced late Wednesday night, many voiced strong opposition to the details of the bill. Folks started to think the bill would be held so all parties could discuss the options and possible changes. Not the case - the bill was up and ready to go. So, what’s a committee member to do if they want to see changes?
As the meeting started, you could feel the tension even through the YouTube and Zoom channels. As more folks logged on, they stayed in the waiting room for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and then eventually Rep. Lucy Dathan (D-Norwalk) opened the meeting announcing a recess until 9:30 am. She was then joined by Republican Senate Ranking Member Tony Hwang (R-Fairfield) who negotiated a recess until at least 10:00 am.
When the meeting reconvened, Senator Matt Lesser (D-Middletown) was in the chair to moderate the meeting and began with a statement about the process and moving forward. As committee leaders discussed what was happening, it became clear that there was, once again, trouble in River City. Soon after the committee took up the first item – the Senate/Comptroller version of SB 842 - the fireworks began.
House Co-Chair Rep. Kerry Wood (D-Rocky Hill) was very concerned about the impact of the bill to the state budget both in terms of funding many beloved functions of health insurance (the Office of Health Care Strategy, Office of the Consumer Advocate and even the Department of Insurance who depends on fees paid by regulated insurance companies to fund their operations) and the ability of the Comptroller to make decisions about plans that went against the regulation of insurance plans. To address this, she offered an amendment to clean up her concerns.
What happened next was something that hardly ever has happened in my tenure. The two Democratic Co-Chairs went head to head in a debate on the bill, its intentions and the amendment offered. With other members weighing in and Senator Lesser’s continued pressing of Rep. Wood on her plan and details of which line it should be added to and what it actually was designed to accomplish, Rep. Cara Pavalock – D’Amato (R-Bristol) made a motion to call the question, which would end the debate. Yikes.
This set off a number of committee recesses, leaving the viewing audience in the dark as off-camera and out-of-microphone-range legislators and bipartisan staff tried to figure out what the next steps should be. Returning to the video, the committee took a roll call vote and on a 9-9 tied vote with all Republicans voting in the affirmative as well as three Democrats, the motion failed. The committee returned to the agenda. Before they could get started Senator Lesser made an emotional statement about what had just happened and expressed his deepest concern over the members who just broke protocol and voted to “muzzle ”and “silence” members – something never done in his ten years and “not the best protocol for the rest of the session”. Whew.
The debate continued on the motion to adopt Rep. Wood’s amendment and when the vote was taken the amendment passed 10-8 with Senator James Maroney (D-Milford) switching from a previous no vote on calling the question to accepting the amendment. Another off camera consultation - and finally when they returned after more debate the bill as amended passed out of committee, but only to draw stern reaction in a public statement to the press from the Comptroller. “The Committee had an opportunity to meet the moment and advance a piece of legislation that would meet the demands of our constituents by making health care more affordable, accessible and equitable; it failed,” said Comptroller Lembo. “The adopted amendment is health care theater.” Oh my.
So the committee continued on the meeting, recessed again for a public hearing on SB 1006 which was without drama and returned to finish its agenda.
At the end of the day why should anyone care about a little inside the ballpark feud? For starters, it pierced the halo of a smooth and uneventful session. It involved more of a family feud than a partisan feud and it sets a tone for handling the other huge issues facing the legislature in the historic virtual session. I for one think that not being able to work in person and have that luxury of one on one conversations in quiet corners pushed a philosophical debate out into the open and allowed for less than statesmanship to creep into the debate of the committee. It’s okay to disagree, it’s okay to vote for your principals and when the vote is taken it’s ok to stand for something or fall for anything. But I guess I’d hope that if there was a do over, people’s personal attitudes and leadership would be more welcoming of the hallmark of democracy, the ability to disagree. And to accomplish what the people who elected them to do – work it out for a better solution for all.
I believe that while there are many, many moving pieces to the topic of a public option in healthcare, the idea has many supporters and advocates. While a final solution might not happen this session, a framework will be worked on to move the ball down the field. As far as the impact of the disagreement and moment of statesmanship pause, that might take someone with a higher pay grade to put this back together.
There’s a great quote by Colin Powell - “Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.” I’m interested to see what the proponents of the original bill, the Comptroller, the Governor, the supporters of the Senate Republican bill and the proponents of the amended bill take as their next steps.
