hartford courant: sustinet passes house
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ARTFORD - The state House of Representatives took a major step Wednesday night toward resolving an issue that has long defied a solution -- guaranteeing health care coverage to tens of thousands of Connecticut residents without health insurance. After a debate that lasted 2½ hours, the House voted largely along party lines, 107-35, for a landmark bill aimed at achieving universal health care in Connecticut by creating a public insurance pool that anyone could join, regardless of their health history.TRANSCRIPT
After Wesleyan student Johanna Justin-Jinich waskilled, the media coverage was intense.
But what about 22-year-old Ashley Peoples of Enfield,kidnapped and killed in August 2008?
Or Tiana Notice, a 25-year-old University of Hartfordgraduate student, stabbed to death on Valentine’s Day?
Why do some lives — and deaths — seem tomatter more? It’s hard not to look at thedisproportionate coverage and wonderabout the color of the news.
Helen Ubiñas column, Page A2
The Color Of News
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Folksy singer Kris Allen, left, is the new “American Idol,” turningjudges’ favorite Adam Lambert into an also-ran. Allen gets a recordcontract along with his “American Idol” title. Story, Page A4
Underdog Kris Allen Captures America’s Vote
Thomas Edward Horejs of Greencastle, Pa., jumps into the arms of friend andfellow newly commissioned officer Chris Mohnke of St. Johns, Mich., at the endof the 128th Commencement Exercises of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy inNew London on Wednesday. The 225 men and women in the Class of 2009were addressed by U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. “Mycommitment to you today is to do everything I can to ensure that the CoastGuard has all the tools and resources it needs to achieve everything the countryasks of you,” Napolitano said. Story, Page A5.
COAST GUARD ACADEMY COMMENCEMENT
CADETS TAKE A BIG LEAPCLOE POISSON | [email protected]
ON THE WEB For more photos from the U.S. Coast Guard Academycommencement, visit courant.com/coastguard
Pfizer Inc. is prepared to pay tens ofmillions of dollars to Nigerians who werekilled or injured when thepharmaceutical giant tested anexperimental antibiotic on scores ofchildren during a meningitis outbreak inthe African country.
So why is a Connecticut attorney
working so hard to scuttle the settlement? It’s the latest twist in a long-twisted
court battle that has skipped across anocean and back again, and drawn oneverything from Colonial-era piracy lawsto the Nuremberg trials and a John leCarré murder mystery.
West Haven lawyer Richard Altschulerhas been suing Pfizer for most of the pastdecade, but he wasn’t cheering when hefirst got word of a $75 million offer to
resolve a case in the Nigerian courts.Instead, he’s gone to court in Connecticutto block the settlement, charging that thedrug company and lawyers for theNigerian government are conspiring toshortchange his clients — and slam thedoor on his U.S. suit.
The wrinkle: Altschuler is not involvedin the Nigerian negotiations and,
$75 MILLION OFFER
Attorney Fighting Pfizer SettlementSays Offer To Nigeria On Drug-Test Suit An End-Run Around His Clients
By MATTHEW [email protected]
ATTORNEY, A7
The state House of Representatives took a majorstep Wednesday night toward resolving an issuethat has long defied a solution — guaranteeinghealth care coverage to tens of thousands ofConnecticut residents without health insurance.
After a debate that lasted 2½ hours, the Housevoted largely along party lines, 107-35, for alandmark bill aimed at achieving universal healthcare in Connecticut by creating a public insurance
pool that anyone could join, regardless of theirhealth history.
The pool, backed by a coalition of social activists,religious leaders and Democratic lawmakers,would be based on the existing pool for stateemployees, and is designed to compete with — notreplace — private insurance plans.
It is still not clear when, or if, the so-calledSustiNet plan could become law.
The state Senate still needs to act, andRepublican Gov. M. Jodi Rell, who has beenpushing her own Charter Oak health plan, could
veto it. The costs are expected to be a majorsticking point, especially with the state’s projectedbudget deficit of $8.7 billion over the next two fiscalyears.
The insurance industry has also pitched analternate concept for expanding health coverage.That plan would also create an insurance pool forpeople who lack coverage, but instead of using apublic pool, the plan would have insurers offercoverage for the people in the pool.
AT THE CAPITOL
House Backs Universal CareMeasure Would Guarantee Medical Coverage To Any State Resident
By CHRISTOPHER [email protected]
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