The foundation has several ideas for universal health care that it believes can be enacted and be affordable for government, consumers and businesses. The organization insists on certain benchmarks: universality, affordability for families and individuals, high quality care, and the ability to continue health care coverage through changing circumstances. The foundation says it believes health care is a fundamental right.
History
In 1997, Connecticut Attorney GeneralRichard Blumenthal, Connecticut ComptrollerNancy Wyman and a coalition of advocacy and labor organizations sued the for-profit Anthem Insurance Co. over its merger with the non-profit Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Connecticut. The aim was to recover tax benefits and other concessions that the former Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Connecticut had received over several decades. The lawsuit was dropped after Anthem Insurance agreed to a settlement in 1999. As a result, the state established the Connecticut Health Advancement and Research Trust. Anthem Foundation of Connecticut was incorporated as a supporting organization to CHART. It is one of about 165 foundations nationwide to be created by conversions of nonprofit health corporations to for-profit entities. As a condition of these conversions, the law requires that the assets of the nonprofit be retained for some public purpose. At the time, Attorney General Blumenthal called the agreement "a historic victory". The foundation received $41 million to carry out the conditions of the settlement. It was charged with working toward system-wide health care reform. The agreement established Anthem Foundation's legal obligation to help improve health care for those who need it most. The foundation was incorporated in 2000. It opened its first offices in New Haven, Connecticut. In January 2003, Juan Figueroa, a former community organizer, former Connecticut legislator, former assistant attorney general of Connecticut and former president and general counsel of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York, became foundation president. In 2004, the foundation changed its name to reflect a final separation from the Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Connecticut. At the time, Figueroa stated that no relationship with Anthem existed and that the foundation's main focus was passage of universal health care. Since 2004, the foundation has awarded over $7 million in grants to organizations to advance that goal. In 2007, the Hartford Business Journal chose Juan Figueroa as a 2007 "Health Care Hero".
In January 2009 the foundation unveiled SustiNet, a proposal for a statewide health care plan for Connecticut that would provide residents with their choice of health coverage and care regardless of their employment status, age, or pre-existing conditions. SustiNet would emphasize preventive care and the management of chronic illnesses. It would create a large health insurance pool by combining state employees, retirees, and people covered by state assistance programs. The pool would also be open to members of the public without insurance, those with inadequate insurance, and employers, starting with small businesses, nonprofits and municipalities. Eventually, Sustinet would be open to larger employers wishing to insure their employees through the plan. According to analysis by the nation's leading health economists, SustiNet would reduce the proportion of state residents without health coverage from 12 percent to 2 percent by 2014. In addition, SustiNet would bring about savings in the private sector which would far exceed additional state government expenditures. SustiNet passed its first hurdle in the General Assembly's joint committees on Thursday, March 26, receiving a favorable report from the Public Health Committee, which voted 22-8 to move the bill forward. On May 20, 2009, the House of Representatives voted 107-35 for SustiNet, and on the 30th, the Senate did the same, 23-12. SustiNet was sent to Governor M. Jodi Rell, who vetoed it on July 8. On July 20 the governor's vetoes were overridden by the Connecticut House of Representatives with a vote of 102 to 40 and then by the Connecticut Senate with a vote of 24-12.
