I strongly oppose Governor Ned Lamont’s plans to bring managed care organizations (MCOs) back into our successful Medicaid program. Currently, Connecticut leads the nation in Medicaid. Cost Managementaccess to health care, and Quality of careA reinstatement of the MCO would put all this at risk.
MCOs are private insurance plans that run the state’s Medicaid program. In 1996, then-Governor John Rowland hired MCOs to run the Medicaid program, It was a disasterAt the time, I was a state legislator, a dental provider for children covered by HUSKY, and a member of the state Medicaid Oversight Council, and this was one of the most frustrating government failures I have ever witnessed. MCO ran HUSKY until 2012, when Governor Dannel Malloy finally ended this extremely expensive and harmful program.
Beyond them 16 years of darknessProviders fled the program, costs skyrocketed, MCOs never provided us with the data we needed, and we couldn’t hold them accountable for anything. MCOs made a lot of promises they didn’t keep. They promised Husky members expected to be able to receive care from any provider that accepted their private insurance plan. 40% of providers are on the MCO list The state medical association did not accept Medicaid patients. Lawsuit filed The lawsuit was filed against a Medicaid MCO for deceptive and improper practices that harmed patients’ health.
Connecticut Medicaid Top in Japan for cost managementWe spend one-third as much as other states on administration. If Connecticut spent as much on Medicaid as the average MCO state, the program would cost taxpayers an extra $4 billion to be wasted. The evidence is clear. MCOs do not help reduce costs or improve access or quality of careOur state has great needs – housing, public health, education – we can’t afford to waste $4 billion on middlemen who don’t add any value.
I understand your question — most states use MCOs to run their Medicaid programs and we don’t — but if the Governor had been in state government when we were struggling to hold MCOs accountable, he would have recognized that reintroducing MCOs was a costly and dangerous idea.
I urge Governor Lamont to shelve the idea of an MCO and instead support a cost-effective program that can serve as a national model.
Vicki Orsini Nardello represented Connecticut’s 89th House District from 1994 to 2012.
