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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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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Public Option on Tap?

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Thursday, February 9, 2012   

HARTFORD, Conn. - People in red t-shirts were back at the state capitol and legislative office buildings on Wednesday to kick off this year's campaign for a public option for health insurance. Steve Jennings, North Haven, was one of them.

Jennings is a member of the Interfaith Fellowship for Universal Health Care. The statewide body has been conducting a grassroots letter-writing campaign on the issue, he says.

"We want the public option to be a consumer-friendly policy so that individuals who are uninsured will be able to afford health insurance."

He says the number of Nutmeggers without insurance has spiked 30 percent since the recession started, to more than 400,000.

Advocates are focusing on both the Health Care Exchange Board and the Governor's Health Care Cabinet. Those entities must come up with an alternative to the current for-profit insurance market by Oct. 1, Jennings says.

"The public option needs to be included as part of the health care exchange so that people will be able to compare policies."

Other alternatives, such as a health insurance co-op, are also possible.


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