U.S. Senator Chris Murphy was in Derby Monday afternoon for a tour of Griffin Hospital and a meeting with representatives of nonprofit health care and social service organizations from the region.
His aim, he said, was to find out what nonprofit leaders from the area thought he should be aware of in light of the ongoing implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the need to address the country’s debt — and the continuing and seemingly inexorable rise in the cost of medical treatment.
“I want to know what you need me to know,” he said.
Murphy said he thought Connecticut’s high quality health care delivery system put the state in a good position going into this period of change, although he noted it is also one of the most expensive states for health care.
The first to speak was Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce President Bill Purcell, who said he pays more for a year of health insurance than his father-in-law paid for his first house.
“It’s not sustainable,” he said.
Purcell added that the biggest concern for local businesspeople is the uncertainty over the cost of the Affordable Care Act.
Murphy said since passage of the health care reform bill, medical care
costs have increased, but at slower rates than at any time in recent memory.
Unfortunately, he said, those savings haven’t been passed along to customers by insurance companies, who are also uncertain about how the law will affect them.
During the discussion, Murphy touched on several other issues related to health care.
He stressed that the country would have to find ways to keep people healthy at a lower cost, which means a shift from expensive medical intervention treatment toward preventative care.
“We have a sick care system instead of a health care system,” he said.
“The financial incentives are geared toward putting people in the hospital, not for getting them out of the hospital,” he added.
One participant asked Murphy what he thought of the recent sequester, a package of across-the-board budget cuts that went into effect when Republicans and Democrats couldn’t agree on a better budget-cutting compromise.
“It’s insane,” said Murphy, who said economists agree it would hurt the economy, although they disagree about how much — projections range from 0.25 percent of GDP to a whole 1.0 percent.
Still, Murphy said there are parts of the budget that can be cut.
He favored repealing the sequester and replacing it with a package of targeted, phased-in budget cuts, he said.
Many of the participants were aware of the effect the sequester could have on nonprofit organizations.
One said it would eliminate Head Start eligibility for 500 children in Connecticut, hampering efforts to close the ​“achievement gap” in school test scores between low-income, predominately minority children and middle-income white children.
Murphy said both parties in Washington need to compromise to get a ​“grand bargain” debt deal.
Democrats need to think about entitlement reform and Republicans need to think about tax reform, he said.
As the meeting concluded, Murphy gave the discussion participants the name of his staff health care expert and invited them to contact him whenever they need to.