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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Health Care Advocates Appeal Up the Ladder

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Thursday, December 1, 2011   

HARTFORD, Conn. – Small-business interests have been trying to get more representation on the state's new Health Insurance Exchange Board. Now they've reached out to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for backup.

Kevin Galvin, president of Small Business for a Healthy Connecticut, wrote to Sebelius Wednesday, asking for her intervention to encourage the administration of Gov. Dannel Malloy to appoint consumer and small business representatives as a majority of the nine-member board, as regulations specify.

"Right now, of the entire board, only one member is a small business, and the others involved all have had clear ties to the insurance industry."

Galvin, owner of Connecticut Commercial Maintenance, has been a business owner for 30 years.

"I've never been able to provide health care to my staff. Them not having health care has a direct reaction to the productivity of my business, and the profitability of my business, my ability to hire help."

Without consumer and small-business representation on the board, he says, what the exchange may end up offering may not be a true reflection of what small businesses and individuals in the state need when it comes to insurance products, price and quality.

"What I'm concerned about is the success of health-care reform in Connecticut, and if we don't have small-business and consumer buy-in, and some real faith in the process, we are going to have small businesses opting out of the process rather than opting in."

Jeanette de Jesus, special adviser to the governor on health reform, did not return a call seeking comment. She said in October that the administration interprets the regulations differently but that Malloy would support adding additional members to represent consumers. However, none has been added yet.




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