Senator Looney E-News: This Weekend, Celebrate Earth Day

State Senator Cathy Osten (D-Sprague) was honored today by the CT Council of Family Service Agencies (CCFSA) with its 29th Annual Family Legislator of the Year Award in recognition of her “exceptional advocacy, dedicated service, and her unwavering commitment to the health, safety and well-being of Connecticut’s children and families.”

“Senator Osten is a true champion for human services and in particular for the essential safety net services provided by our network of family service agencies,” said Alyssa Goduti, President and CEO of the CCFSA. “Despite the challenging budget situation, Cathy continues to fight for vital programs and policies that support children and families to find hope for brighter futures. We are grateful for Senator Osten’s efforts on behalf of the CCFSA and the children and families that we serve.”

“Cathy’s continuous outreach to seniors, her fight for the middle class, and her desire for open government and environmental integrity continually demonstrate that her focus is on improving communities,” said Diane Manning, Board Chair of the CCFSA.

“I’m truly honored to receive this award from the CCFSA; they do fantastic work on issues that are priorities for me, like safety net services, support for the elderly, behavioral healthcare, housing, and family supports,” said Sen. Osten. “I’ve often said that I want to be a loud voice for people who cannot be heard up here at the State Capitol. I think it’s important for people to remember and to realize sometimes when they encounter someone less fortunate than themselves, there but for the grace of God go I.”

The Connecticut Council of Family Service Agencies, Inc. is a statewide network of fifteen independent, non-profit, family service agencies that deliver services to over 180,000 families annually, with the support of nearly 5,000 dedicated employees and more than 4,000. Member Agencies are community-based, licensed by the state and nationally accredited. Governed by volunteer boards of directors from their respective communities, Family Service Agencies have been effectively serving Connecticut families for more than 100 years.

For more information about CCFSA, please visit their website www.ctfsa.org

Hartley Leads Passage of Law to Make Bioscience Collaboration a Permanent Fixture in Connecticut

Posted on April 19, 2017 by Webmaster

Hartley Leads Passage of Law to Make Bioscience Collaboration a Permanent Fixture in Connecticut

SB 968 makes permanent the Connecticut Health Data Collaborative

Senator Joan Hartley (D-Waterbury) today led the unanimous, bipartisan passage of legislation that will ensure the continued work of the Connecticut Health Data Collaborative (CHDC) working group. The CHDC is tasked with developing and implementing a strategy by which Connecticut can establish itself as a worldwide leader in bioscience and precision medicine. Senator Hartley served on the CHDC with representatives from Yale, UConn and Connecticut’s other bioscience stakeholders, as well as with representatives from the insurance and technology industries.

“The CHDC has done remarkable work in its first year, and its members are energized and committed to working in a public-private collaboration to make Connecticut a global leader in bioscience and performance medicine,” said Senator Hartley. “Bioscience is already expanding rapidly in our state, and having the CHDC acting as a permanent advisory board will be invaluable to ensuring the state leverages this opportunity. This kind of work can be truly world-changing and also serve as a powerful economic engine that will lead to business startups which create skilled job opportunities for generations to come. Connecticut needs new businesses to form and grow here in order to succeed, and continuing the work of the CHDC is a critical tool to accomplish that.”

A 2015 economic competitiveness diagnostic of Connecticut found that the state has great assets and economic drivers in research and development, bioscience and health data. In response to those findings, Senator Hartley and her colleagues on the legislature’s Commerce Committee passed legislation establishing the CHDC and tasking it with creating stronger partnerships and networks amongst the major stakeholders in Connecticut’s bioscience, healthcare and education fields. The CHDC worked to determine ways in which stakeholders can and should collaborate in order to further mutual goals and drive the industry forward.

Earlier this year, the CHDC released a status report identifying the four major areas of collaboration that members believe Connecticut should adopt. If these four “guiding pillars” are embraced, Connecticut would become be one of the first in the nation to adopt a statewide initiative which would leverage the state’s world class academic and research institutions, the insurance industry, and an emerging tech industry.

Now that this bill has passed the Senate, it moves to the House of Representatives for further consideration.

Senator Tim Larson Leads Passage of Pro-Business Insurance Bill

Posted on April 19, 2017 by Webmaster

Senator Tim Larson Leads Passage of Pro-Business Insurance Bill

Senate Senator Tim Larson (D-East Hartford) today led passage of a bill that will ensure health insurance brokers who work on, develop and distribute health care plans that are sold on the Connecticut Health Insurance Exchange receive a commission when the plans are purchased by consumers.

SB 924, An Act Requiring that Health Carriers Using the Connecticut Health Insurance Exchange Pay a Minimum Commission to Certain Insurance Producers, passed with unanimous, bipartisan support in the Senate.

“This bill has seen across the board support from the state healthcare advocate, small businesses and industry groups because it makes sense that the hard working professionals who create these access points to receiving high quality care should receive a commission for the plans they develop,” said Sen. Larson, who co-chairs the General Assembly’s Insurance and Real Estate Committee. “You do the work, you should be compensated and we’ve built a bill that will allow that to happen. This legislation is good for consumers and the professionals who work in this industry, and creates a mechanism to deliver a fair financial return for small agencies. I am glad to see that this bill received full support in the Senate.”

The legislation requires health carriers that deliver, issue for delivery, renew, amend or continue a qualified health plan through the exchange to pay a reasonable commission to an insurance producer who assisted an individual or a small employer in evaluating the qualified health plans offered through the exchange and select such a plan.

Currently, some healthcare plans created by brokers, especially those who work at or operate small, independent businesses, end up directly on the state’s public exchange. Once a plan is sold in that marketplace, the agent does not receive any type of compensation in the form of a commission for his or her work developing the plan.

SB 924 provides broad-based guidelines for ensuring a commission is provided to brokers for plans sold on the exchange.

The bill goes next to the House of Representatives for consideration.

Flexer Joins Regional Commission to Improve Job Opportunities

Posted on April 13, 2017 by Webmaster

Flexer Joins Regional Commission to Improve Job Opportunities

State Senator Mae Flexer (D-Danielson) has been appointed to the New England Board of Higher Education’s (NEBHE) Commission on Higher Education & Employability. The Commission is being spearheaded by NEBHE and Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo and will focus on cutting-edge labor data and skill sets in order to better match the needs of college graduates with local industries.

Sen. Flexer, who is Vice-Chair of the legislature’s Higher Education and Employment Advancement Committee, is the only elected Connecticut state official selected for the Commission, which held its first working group meeting Wednesday in the Rhode Island State House in Providence, Rhode Island.

“We need to strengthen relationships between the public and private sectors. It’s essential that states continually fine-tune their higher education programs to help students succeed in the 21st-Century workplace. We need to recognize that our economy is changing rapidly and that our systems of higher education need to be adaptable and responsive to those changes.” Sen. Flexer said. “Working together as a region between all six states will give us a leg-up and allow us to share best practices. Connecticut has a good head-start on matching high school and college courses to the needs of our regional employers, but the stakes are very high, and I am happy to discover any new information that will benefit Connecticut and New England residents and businesses.”

The Commission was launched to address the broad recognition that:

Too many employers are struggling to find workers who can be productive in today’s technology-rich workplaces;
Too few students leave college with information, skills and attitudes they need to secure and succeed in jobs in their field;
Demographic and labor market trends are making employability of all New Englanders more important;
Institutional and state policy rigidities often create barriers to promising innovations and improvement strategies;
Maintaining the status quo is likely to prove extremely costly as new England competes to attract and grow quality firms and jobs and keep up with the demands of the digital information economy.

The Commission will develop a regional action plan to align colleges and universities, policymakers and business with the goal of increasing the career readiness of New England graduates. The Commission will study the effective use of labor market data, targeted higher education/industry partnerships, and new economy “skill bundles” and emerging credentialing systems.

The Commission is charged with identifying regional and state-specific labor market strengths and challenges, identifying model practices, programs and policies exhibited by states and business/industry within the region, and making recommendations to state policy makers. The Commission will meet throughout 2017.