“Health and family,” my Grandma used to say, “Those are the most important things.” She was right—so it is no wonder that healthcare is such an important issue up in Hartford this year. We need to take action to improve healthcare for families in Connecticut. But what exactly does that mean?

When we hear talk about “improving healthcare” there are actually two problems that need to be addressed. First, the costs of healthcare are escalating at an extremely rapid rate—and consumers are bearing more and more of this inflation through higher deductibles, co-pays, and premiums. Second, there are a large number of people without health insurance (over 400,000 in Connecticut). For those of us without health insurance, one illness or accident can lead to financial disaster.

So we in the General Assembly need to fix both of these problems—and there are very different solutions for each.

Reducing the Cost of Healthcare. Escalating costs in healthcare are happening for a very simple reason—we all want the latest and best healthcare. Who can blame us? America has the best healthcare system in the world because we are constantly pressing research around illness and new medications.

But if you look at where the costs are actually rising, you notice a very interesting pattern. Costs are rising faster in the latter phases of illness. In fact, extending the last few months of life are the most expensive part of treating illness. Preventing disease, on the other hand, is much cheaper.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, early detection could substantially reduce the billions of dollars spent on cancer treatment each year. Not only does cancer screening save lives by detecting breast, cervical, and colorectal cancers early; it also is the first step in preventing many cases of colorectal and cervical cancers from ever developing.

We need a radical shift in healthcare—from merely treating illness to preventing it. Not only is it cheaper to prevent disease than the treat it, but isn’t that the whole point of healthcare—to stay healthy and not get sick?

I believe we should structure our health care policy to reward healthy behavior with lower premiums or rebates. People who get annual physicals and get checked early for cancer or other diseases should receive financial incentives to do so. Not only will we be healthier, but we will reduce the cost of healthcare by treating less disease.

Covering the Uninsured. We need a private-public partnership to deal with the issue of the uninsured—not government run “universal healthcare” like Canada or France.

Governor M. Jodi Rell has a great plan to do this. Her recently proposed Charter Oak Plan and HUSKY Health 2007 initiative are admirable first steps towards ensuring that every man, woman, and child in Connecticut has healthcare coverage.

The Charter Oak Plan would help connect all adults who are not insured through their workplace with health insurance coverage. It would cost individuals $250 per month and include a full prescription package, laboratory services, and pre- and post-natal care. The plan would include subsidies for the working poor who cannot afford the premiums, but would be available to everyone in Connecticut. The only addition to the plan we should consider is the path Massachusetts took—requiring everyone to get health insurance or enroll in the Charter Oak Plan. Making healthcare insurance like auto insurance would ensure that the risk pool is diversified (so healthy people do not opt out),

The Governor’s second proposal is HUSKY Health 2007, which expands the current HUSKY Plan to provide healthcare coverage for the state’s youth. While HUSKY aims to serve children and teenagers in families of all incomes based on a sliding scale, hundreds of children each year often fail to enroll even though they are eligible. HUSKY Health 2007 hopes to close that enrollment gap.

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not mention what I feel is the absolute wrong path for our state to pursue – government-run universal health care. Other countries such as France and Canada have instituted universal healthcare with poor results. People often wait weeks for proper care and receive substandard treatment when the government administers healthcare. Furthermore, instituting a universal health care system similar to the one proposed by some legislative leaders here in Hartford would require the largest tax increase in the history of the state of Connecticut. That’s something I won’t support.

Hopefully the General Assembly will move in the right direction to both control healthcare cost through preventative incentives and cover the uninsured through the Governor’s proposals. Our families deserve nothing less.