Preserve Right To Know
Preserve Right To Know April 6, 2008 If ever a bill deserved to die, it is one recently advanced by the legislature's Insurance and Real Estate Committee that would exempt private contractors performing state work from Freedom of Information rules. The intent of the proposed change in the FOI law, its proponents say, is to protect businesses from revealing "proprietary" information. These include the so-called trade secrets of managed care organizations who provide Medicaid services on behalf of the state through the Husky program. It is another salvo in a protracted battle over whether the HMOs should be able to keep certain information secret, such as the rates they pay physicians — when taxpayers shell out more than $700 million a year to make sure low-income people have acceptable access to quality medical care. The attorney general, a Superior Court judge, the Freedom of Information Commission and this newspaper all agree that private organizations doing state business should be open and accountable to taxpayers, who have a right to know where their money's going. Gov. M. Jodi Rell, who has made open government a hallmark of her administration, should denounce yet another attempt to undermine transparency. Last November, to her credit, she declined to renew the contracts of Husky health care organizations because they refused to commit to full disclosure. Standing on principle is even more important now that the state Department of Social Services is about to negotiate new contracts with companies to run both the Husky program and the governor's Charter Oak Health Plan. The proposed revisions to the law would allow exemptions not only for managed care companies, but any private contractor performing a government function. That would be a huge insult to the people who pay the bills. Copyright © 2008, The Hartford Courant Inserted from <http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-disclose.artapr06,0,3459008,print.story>
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