Connecticut Lawmakers; 219

The following is a sci fi TV original. Connecticut lawmaker. Legislators acting on insurance reform abortion access hospital cost anymore. Lloyd Webber's reports I don't effort to assist homebuyers in big city. And the special place for a Connecticut congressman. The Washington Holocaust Museum. I'm Bob Douglas and welcome to this week's edition of Connecticut lawmakers with a German Day just a week away. State legislators are grinding away at the state capitol. Among the many bills auto insurance reform a bipartisan compromise was reached on auto insurance reform announced at a joint Democratic Republican conference before that measure was approved in the state house. The purpose of doing this bill is to provide a premium rate reduction for the

consumer on his automobile insurance rates. That is the only reason we are doing the bill in order to do that. What we have done is eliminated our no fault system and go to tort. We have eliminated the provision called stacking and we have made health care primary by looking at these issues. They are absolutes in terms of being able to define how you can get a rate reduction and thus a premium reduction for the consumer. In addition to that. In order to provide because we are eliminating no Fall in order to provide a quick means by which an individual can access the money should they be harmed in any way. The bill addresses the judicial system what it does is provide for a mediation. And arbitration system first whereby parties would voluntarily attempt in a very short duration to settle their claims should they be unable to do this he would go into what

I call a fast track adjudication which would be hearing your case before a judge for the for injuries under seventy five thousand dollars and in the end if you are unable to do that you can do as you currently can under our current system which is go to the court. Those are really the main provisions of the bill and of all the people who have worked so hard to put this together this year that the credit more than anyone I believe goes to the speaker of the house and as many of us have worked on this for several years now know are difficult it is to bring the parties who have a very strong interest in worthwhile supportable interests in this area and you have the speaker was one who made this an issue from the very beginning of the Opening Day speech. It would be resolved then and I see it. Just want to point out they were here today with resolution and I think the credit belongs along with everyone else to him and his special recognition.

We're going to be bringing structural changes which will bring long term stability to the market which I think is important for the consumer down the road. I think we're doing an overall approach and it's not just a one shot quick fix solution but rather a long term solid bill that's really going to bring continue to have Connecticut have the product in the state of Connecticut not create a problem of availability but addressing the problem of affordability. The repeal of the no fault law in part provides for fast track system to resolve claims under certain conditions requires prior approval for all auto insurance rates over a four year period. Requires notification when a policy is cancelled. And it abolishes a $400 threshold for suing for medical costs and wages. The bill sailed through the state house by a one hundred forty two to seven vote. It gets considered next in the state Senate.

I'm going to tell you that this is a legislatively created solution. We wrote it. We're proud of it. The slave House also passed an important bill that cuts by an estimated 100 million dollars hospital cost increases for this year. The legislation was I think a very impressive effort to try to address one of the most basic problems of the health care crisis in the state which is just the skyrocketing cost of hospital treatment. And. What we did yesterday was look at the formula that's used to set hospital prices in Connecticut which was based on a 1989 statute which established a formula of hospital inflation plus 2 percent which is up. Point about double the normal inflation rate for the rest of the economy. There clearly is a vestige of a different time in the state of Connecticut when I was a nursing shortage when there was much more prosperity and

the build we place that formula with an across the board for a quarter percent rate increase for all hospitals. In addition to that it eliminated the detailed budget review process which is very cumbersome and expensive for hospitals so they will just get their order for the next upcoming weight year with a letter simply a letter being mailed to them. I could go on and on but there was one other piece to it which is a compliance question which is always hanging in the over everyone's head which is the prior wait years penalty for overcharges for hospitals that have their you know Cap established pursuant to the old formula there was an agreement reached on what the compliance figure will be when you implement that compliance figure with the four and a quarter percent rate cap. The weighted average increase for hospital prices across the state will be two point eight percent which is really a great accomplishment in terms of bringing down the health

care costs in Connecticut much more in line with the normal rate of inflation which is being experienced throughout the rest of the economy. It's an interim measure for one year. It was a one year arrangement. That's correct and the reason for that was that there still is a great debate raging really in this issue about whether or not we should just totally deregulate the pricing structure for hospitals or whether or not we should leave. We should reform the rate structure that exists and because of the uncertainty about what direction the whole country is headed in terms of national health care reform. And there's been all kinds of rumors about price controls vs. managed competition. This was the best we could do at this point. But the good news is that the warring parties that have been surrounding this issue and have just really created an impossible gridlock situation came together this year on this arrangement. And I think that really bodes well as the next legislature convenes next February that we're going to work together as partners ravenous

adversaries to try and solve the health care crisis. It was announced this week that some 50 million dollars in state funds will be made available to help people buy homes in Connecticut's largest cities. Lloyd Wimbish has more in this report. All good homes will need a strong foundation. And now the state is going to be involved in a new program to help the housing industry here in Connecticut and make it easier for hundreds of families to buy homes. It's called The Star mortgage program in the state sure as Europe is making plans to pump millions of dollars in state pension money into that effort. Let me say how pleased I am. To announce that the State Treasurer's affordable Residential Mortgage Program also known to many of you by the acronym star will be offered again this year. Of beginning on Monday June 14th. I plan on making

available 50 million dollars and state pension funds are perhaps more of a demand dictates through 19 lenders across the state of Connecticut. The goal of the star mortgage program is to help more Connecticut families realize the dream of homeownership. Low down payments and below market rate residential mortgages will be offered to make buying a home more affordable during the first two star mortgage offerings in 1991 and 1992. Nearly one hundred sixty million dollars in loans were funded that resulted in more than 12 hundred home mortgages. And the realtors are optimistic about the third round of 50 million dollars. Well my thoughts are it's got to be positive. Any time you you offer more attractive rates more attractive underwriting criteria and money from the state treasurer's office for any housing opportunities expanding it to multifamily housing and having Freddie Mac involved that there's a conduit for these loans to go

to. I think you'll find lenders wanting to participate more I think you'll find realtors warming up to the idea more than they have in the past. The builder of the deer run single family subdivision in Newington says Home Builders in Connecticut have been trying more innovative methods to try to make houses more affordable. These houses range in price from one hundred forty nine thousand to one hundred fifty six thousand dollars. More help is on the way for the housing industry. The star mortgage program will include a down payment of as little as 5 percent below market interest rates a fixed rate for 30 years and no sales price or income limits. The program as I'm sure all of you know is designed to encourage low and moderate income households to purchase a home here in the state of Connecticut. That's why those who meet certain credit requirements and earn enough to carry a monthly mortgage payment may qualify for up to a 95 percent mortgage which means of course that they need only

put down 5 percent for the mortgage. There is work for some home builders here in Connecticut but a lot more activity is dated. Officials with the Connecticut Association of Realtors say the star mortgage program is the kind of effort needed to broaden the base for home buyers and at the same time help to revive the economy. Well being the third year around we have already seen this program having a tremendous impact on sales in the markets where the realtors use the program. We represent 13000 real estate agents in the state of Connecticut who belong to Oregon ization and over the past two years we've seen it do a lot of good in various communities and so we're excited about the program. Sales right now are holding steady at some some markets are up. Frankly some markets are down from where they were last year and I think a lot of it has to do with people security in their jobs when they feel like they're secure they'll go out and look at buying a home. The star mortgages are available for all potential home buyers in Connecticut that include

single two three in four family houses. There will be additional incentives for borrowers who buy homes in designated urban areas. This year we are offering some additional senators and send ups as well. Borrowers who fall well then star income guidelines which you'll find in the back of your brochure and in your packet. And to buy in designated urban areas which you will see in bold and back of your package can receive the maximum star benefit peoples bank is pleased to be have been selected again as the master service or the coordinator for the Star program in the state of Connecticut. We think that Star has been successful in the past and that the changes that have been made particularly those that reduced the closing costs for individuals purchasing in the inner city and providing the maximum interest rate benefit will help accelerate and help us improve the penetration of inner city lending in this particular program.

People seeking more information can call the hotline at 1 800. 3 8 2 star. When the program starts Monday June 14th. Yeah applications will be accepted on a first come first served basis. I as the new treasurer I'm certainly very pleased that we can again prudently invest a portion of the state's pension funds to help Connecticut residents realize what is I think a dream for all Americans and that is to own their own home. There are plenty of new houses for sale in Connecticut. The fifty million dollars in the Star mortgage program could provide funding for as many as 500 mortgages and the state treasurer says if successful it could be expanded in the region. Lloyd Wimbish for Connecticut lawmakers now from the nation's capital. The opening of the National Holocaust Museum is a special place for a Connecticut congressman from Washington with

more. Kathleen Koch. Hours before it opens visitors begin lining up outside the Holocaust Memorial Museum is imposing brick and stone façade second district Congressman Sam Gejdenson is like many who come here wave with painful memories. This card tells the story of a Holocaust survivor much like Gejdenson parents media relations director Liz Rose guided him on a personal tour opening with the Nazis deliberate campaign to segregate and persecute the Jews. You know they're using children's books to further the propaganda against Jews and others this in particular against Jews and so it was it was included in every part of society. In the. Region. To keep. The. Jews and other minorities away from non-Jews are allowed to roam. Free. The example points out that despite an early front page warnings like this America and its European counterparts did little international conferences debated whether to accept Jewish refugees. Then adjourned with no decision.

They're sort of the theme that all of these conferences were held unlovely tells you really. Write to me write well. And just turn their back and you get the New York Times editorial. Cartoons. Thinking Wow and the borders were closed from from the other side not from the German scientists celibate no countries would take these people. Prominent or the instruments of the Nazis so-called final solution a model of the gas chambers Zajac lawn B gas canisters a crematoria oven. Then the relics left behind scissors toothbrushes razors and thousands of shoes. There's also film of the mobile killing squads like the one that attacked a gay Vinson's father's village in Poland. They came in one day and they rounded up all the people. And they. Shot them. After they made them undress and dig a hole. The father escaped by burying himself in a wood pile. And then a non-Jewish woman went by and saw him and through additional wood on top of them. So when the Nazis came through they didn't see him.

Not far away a three story photographic monument to a Polish town not unlike his father's where all the 29 residents were machine gunned and dumped into mass graves. They just like photographs that you carry in your wallet. Photograph said. Your family know that your grandparents took of their village and I think the congressman admits that powerful images can sometimes be overwhelming. It's very hard I think I have to keep somewhat of a kind of. Affront to myself because if if I'm not careful then I can feel myself you know just losing still Gejdenson says some believe the museum doesn't fully convey the reality of the victim's suffering. My mother when she see things on TV would say that it's too clean it's too sterile that there's no human way you know to to give the real sense of what it was like how filthy how other people were just jammed and you know just impossible in pictures or and in any other kind of presentation. But there are also celebrations of survival. A wall of passports for Jews who escaped

and the stories of heroes who hid them from the Nazis. Like a woman who sheltered Gavyn since father for several months. This woman risked not just her life. This woman to risk the lives of eight children. Had my father been found in her house. And. While courage was in in large it was in large supply the instances were heard a really astounding even more miraculous says the congressman is the fact that people like his parents went on with their lives despite it all. What's amazing is that people recover not just physically. But psychologically they could they could come out of that have children have families and function again as human beings. And it is that recognition of each other's humanity and our joint responsibility for protecting it that resonates as the museum's inexorable message. I think the lessons are clear that wherever we see prejudice and hatred we have to speak out and take action that's what's been so frustrating about the Europeans blocking the

president's attempts to do things in the in the former Yugoslavian republics. And you can't wait till the number is a million or two million or six million. You have to act when it happens the first time or else it'll be too late. In Washington Kathleen Koch for Connecticut lawmakers. Among much legislative activity in the General Assembly this week was passage of an abortion access bill. This amendment essentially becomes. The bill it represents. Months of hard work with some of the. Finest constitutional lawyers in the state. And it attempts to deal with. A situation that was. Thrust upon Connecticut. That we didn't want it was a it's an. Illegal situation that was created by a Supreme Court decision. That was handed down last January the brae decision which said.

That clinics. Abortion clinics hospitals that provide abortion services can no longer use federal law. As the basis to seek injunctive relief. And certain criminal penalties against though who systematically seek to shut down. Clinics and thereby deny women their constitutional right to exercise their right to choose and let there be no doubt and this is the core of what we're dealing with today. Twenty years after Roe versus Wade was. Hit it down by the Supreme Court despite cutbacks. In the Webster decision one thousand eighty nine in the Casey decision in 1901. Abortion remains a fundamental right under the law and it is a civil right. It's protected under the Constitution. Growing out of a right to privacy. What has happened. In the last few years is it became increasingly clear

that abortion would remain a fundamental right. Is that those who oppose or oppose. Abortion who oppose a woman's right to choose as they have lost the battles in the courtrooms. And lost the battles in state legislatures across this country have taken more and more to direct action in the streets. There's nothing wrong with direct action if it's kept at the level of civil discourse. There's nothing wrong. With the tempting part to persuade a woman not to exercise her right to choose because the protesters merely exercising his or her right to free speech. There's nothing wrong with picketing. There's nothing wrong with protesting there's nothing wrong with sidewalk counseling. Unfortunately as opponents of choice. Have grown more and more desperate in the last few years some not all. Some a minority have resorted to clearly illegal

tactics. Systematic even paramilitary attempts. To shut down on a regular basis. Abortion Clinics across our country and it is that kind of activity that prompted the use of federal law. The civil rights statutes and codified section 1085 of our federal code. That prompted. The hospitals and clinics across this country to use federal law to seek injunctions successfully against those who would deny a woman's right to choose. My community was the scene of many respects the most severe and the most violent episode to take place in this day at a clinic. The bill that's before us I think fairly distinguishes between the right. To. Protest. The right and the message that come with words. And the limits that society must necessarily sought set down.

Where those words become actions that interfere with the rights of another. This is a fairly simple bill in that respect. It simply says that in this society we have a right of expression. We have a right of action and we have to protect all of those rights and that's exactly what this does. Without allowing the physical interference without allowing the rights of another to in effect be trampled. And I commend Senator Jefferson for the hard work that he has done to bring this measure before us. And I hope that we will pass it today. But I do believe that this bill has been very carefully crafted and has weighed the freedom of speech issue and the freedom of choice. And the right to privacy which I think is probably the most important issue when it comes to somebody who's blocking somebodies passage into one of the clinics or whatever it may be. I would hope that my colleagues would take very careful consideration when they vote on this and realize that our rights are very very

precious and that each time we do something we try to weigh those carefully so that one right does not override another. But in this particular issue I believe we have seen the evidence of what has happened when one right or one group believes their right is greater than another group's. And for that purpose I believe this piece of legislation the amendment drafted the way it is will help to preserve all the rights involved while maintaining what this state has already chosen to do for women in terms of the right to choose. I don't think any of us would have any problem whatsoever. If. Nazis were depriving. Jews access to synagogues or. If. Right wing skinheads as exist in England today were preventing. People of color.

From. Exercising their rights we would understand the gravity of what was going on in our the fabric of a values that it holds our society together. We would have no trouble whatsoever understanding the profoundly immoral. Nature. Of the crime because what was going on was that individuals because of their religion or because of the color of their skin and were being deprived of their constitutional rights and the Constitution is is what provides us with the the legal foundation of our government and the way we operate our society. And a felony. I think very few of us very few of us would doubt that the deprivation of civil rights in those contexts it's such a severe crime as to deserve. The opprobrium. In addition to the potential incarceration.

Of a felony on one's record. And it disturbs me that when another constitutional right. Is what that which is at stake the constitutional right. Of women to choose and I recognize it within the circle. There's broad diversity in the perspective of individuals as to. Whether people ought to exercise their right to choose. But at least we ought to understand and recognize. That the right to choose is a fundamental right under our Constitution. Senators and or your votes properly recorded. Machine is the tally history for you to name your ass in the field. I think it is a very strong and will be very effective measure to protect the woman's right to choose and I think will withstand whatever scrutiny it's given by the courts. I think it very carefully is crafted to draw

distinction between free expression on the one hand in the form of speech and physical obstruction and interference on the other. Events an exercise of the right of choice I might say in addition that having spoken personally to the attorney general United States about this subject I believe that the eyes of the whole nation are on Connecticut. Certainly she is very much aware that Janet Reno is very conscious of our effort to craft this kind of compromise that balances very important rights. And we'll be very interested in the result here in our legislature not only as a model for other states but also for potential national legislation which she is supporting. This is the first of its kind legislation from the state. This is the first state legislation of its kind and therefore is a real milestone assuming it passes the House of Representatives in attempting to protect a woman's right to choose. What practical implications.

Do you think this legislation will have I think as a deterrent and particularly in terms of the right of people to get court orders preventing physical destruction it will be extremely effective and will provide some reassurance for I think it's absolutely necessary to those who want to exercise the right of choice and also those who are providing health care that they will be given protections and that this type of physical interference will be deterred are everyone's civil rights are protected here those seeking access under law and those legitimately protesting I believe that this legislation adequately and fully protects the rights of both protesters who may be saying things that are found offensive by myself and others. But they have a right to make those remarks and express those feelings at the same time it also protects those who are exercising the right of choice which is an important aspect of the right of privacy that their rights too will be protected

and that's this week's edition of lawmakers. We do thank you for joining. Us.