Citing a host of job and program cuts and funding levels that threaten hospital viability and patients’ access to care, Connecticut hospitals have asked the federal government to declare that the state is violating federal law by paying inadequate rates for treating Medicaid patients and imposing a $556 million tax on the industry.
Hospitals ask feds to declare CT Medicaid rates, hospital tax illegal
Posted inNews
Record number of active voters registered for election next week
The total is about 25,000 more active voters than were registered before the 2012 election between President Obama and Mitt Romney.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Lembo says state finances are $42 million in deficit
State finances are $42 million in deficit this fiscal year, Comptroller Kevin P. Lembo wrote Tuesday, a modest shortfall that splits the difference between competing budget projections from Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and nonpartisan legislative analysts.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
CT can do better for minority teacher candidates than Relay GSE
Without question, Connecticut needs more teachers who see themselves in their students (and vice versa), who have roots in the communities where they teach, and who are well positioned to instruct in ways that are academically challenging and culturally, linguistically, and community responsive. The pipeline into the profession for teachers of color is too often obstructed and unwelcoming, and change is imperative. … But the Relay Graduate School of Education is no panacea for our pipeline problems, and instead represents the tip of an approaching iceberg that threatens the education of the state’s most under-served students and sells short the very teachers to whom we owe the best preparation, support, working conditions, and compensation available.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Choose candidates who have economic growth as top priority
If you’re satisfied with the state of the economy in Connecticut, then vote for the status quo.
If you think we can do better, and bring greater investment, economic growth, and job creation to our state, here’s how we can make it happen.
We can start by electing state House and Senate candidates on November 8 who will make economic growth their top priority.
Posted inPolitics
Esty, Cope differ sharply, and sometimes agree, in a civil race
WASHINGTON — Overshadowed like other congressional races in Connecticut by the loud and vitriolic presidential race, the matchup between Democratic Rep. Elizabeth Esty and GOP challenger Clay Cope has been a civil contest between party moderates.
Posted inEducation, Justice
DCF pivots to a new strategy to keep juveniles out of jail
The new strategy aims to keep youths – unless they are deemed a risk to the public – out of juvenile jail and in a less-restrictive group home or with their families, with appropriate support services.
Posted inPolitics
Blumenthal: Comey’s comments ‘cryptic’ and actions ‘highly unusual’
While stepping back from demanding James Comey’s resignation, as some Democrats have done, Blumenthal, a former federal prosecutor, said Comey has a lot of explaining to do about his “cryptic” comments.
Posted inEducation, Health
Study: Opioid hospitalizations for kids nearly doubled in 15 years
The hospitalization rate grew especially quickly among toddlers and preschool-aged children, surprising researchers.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Feds new policy on Part B hurts cancer patients
Connecticut residents are doing everything they can to find a cure for cancer both professionally and personally. For some, that means lacing up their sneakers and participating in charity runs, for others, it means showing up for treatment or work at hospitals, cancer centers, medical offices or biopharmaceutical firms across the state. However, a new proposal that officials at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services are pushing could thwart many of these efforts and result in cancer doctors having to move away from providing patients the most advanced medications.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Budget deficits and state elections have a turbulent history
Democratic and Republican governors have been accused frequently of hiding red ink over the past decade-and-a-half — particularly when legislative seats or control of the governor’s office is at stake.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Free tuition would be a disaster for private colleges
When Hillary Clinton was struggling to win the Democrat party nomination against upstart Bernie Sanders, she co-opted his idea of free college tuition for all. To appease Sanders supporters, she allowed the idea to become part of the Democrat Party platform on which she is now running. If she really attempts to promote this idea, it will be a disaster for higher education in the country. Connecticut with its longstanding private school tradition will be especially hard hit.
Posted inPolitics
As ACA faces new challenges, fixes not assured
WASHINGTON — The Affordable Care Act is facing more challenges than at any time since its initial enrollment period in 2013, when the program was bedeviled by technical glitches. Besides rising premiums and fewer choices in Connecticut and elsewhere, there’s uncertainty a new Congress and a new administration will make fixes to the ACA that will improve its health.
Posted inHealth
Drug prices, not the health law, top voters’ 2017 health priorities
The monthly October tracking poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that issues relating to prescription drug prices and out-of-pocket spending far outrank proposals to address the shortcomings of the Affordable Care Act.
Posted inPolitics
Union dumps consultant, PAC treasurer in Petit ad fiasco
House Majority Leader Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, told reporters Thursday morning that someone should lose their job over the digital attack ad a union political action committee placed against Dr. William Petit. By nightfall, someone did.