Gov. M. Jodi Rell has asked the Department of Economic and Community Development to issue a report by April 15 of the economic impact of the national health care reform law.
“Connecticut employees – in businesses large and small – face some steep costs associated with the federal health care reform bill. I think it is important that we know just what those costs will be if the bill could result in job losses,” she said.
Eric George, a lobbyist for the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, estimates, at the very least, jobs will be lost at Connecticut’s health insurance companies.
He said in 2006, there were 245,242 people employed by health-insurance related companies and $9.8 billion was paid in payroll.
“Too many jobs are attached to the insurance industry here. And this [law] will put those jobs at risk,” he said.
Jacqueline was CT Mirror’s Education and Housing Reporter, and an original member of the CT Mirror staff, joining shortly before our January 2010 launch. Her awards include the best-of-show Theodore A. Driscoll Investigative Award from the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists in 2019 for reporting on inadequate inmate health care, first-place for investigative reporting from the New England Newspaper and Press Association in 2020 for reporting on housing segregation, and two first-place awards from the National Education Writers Association in 2012. She was selected for a prestigious, year-long Propublica Local Reporting Network grant in 2019, exploring a range of affordable and low-income housing issues. Before joining CT Mirror, Jacqueline was a reporter, online editor and website developer for The Washington Post Co.’s Maryland newspaper chains. Jacqueline received an undergraduate degree in journalism from Bowling Green State University and a master’s in public policy from Trinity College.
