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18 Hartford Business Journal • January 30, 2017 • www.HartfordBusiness.com Reporter's Notebook Obamacare repeal's economic impact "It's not like we are making money hand over fist. There's no question we lose money. We continue to lose money. It has to stop." Bristol Hospital President Kurt Barwis on the state's proposal to allow municipalities to assess property taxes on hospitals. Matt Pillon Health Care, Bioscience, Energy and Government C onnecticut would lose approxi- mately 36,000 jobs and billions of dollars worth of economic output if Congress eliminates the Afford- able Care Act, as President-Elect Donald Trump has pledged to do, according to a new study by George Washington Univer- sity researchers. Authors of the recently released study, said Connecticut would also see its gross state product fall by $23.3 billion over a four-year period. The researchers assumed a repeal of Obamacare's premium tax credits and Med- icaid expansion funds effective Jan. 2019. Under that scenario, 2.6 million jobs would be lost nationwide in 2019, with a collective drop of $1.5 trillion in gross state product from 2019 to 2023, according to the study, which received funding from the Commonwealth Fund, GWU's public health school and a community health foundation. The authors said their calculations would change if repeal happens on a different timeline. The study also didn't account for a potential Obamacare replacement policy or other possible economic changes, such as tax cuts, because it's still unclear what a new policy would look like. Connecticut's Education and Health Services industry supersector employed 329,900 people as of December, according to the Department of Labor. If GWU's pro- jections become reality, the job losses would represent a loss of approximately 10 percent of those jobs. Environmental council worried about farmland solar The state Council on Environmental Qual- ity, an advisory agency, has added its voice to concerns about increasingly large solar farms taking up agricultural land. $10M investment propels S. Windsor 3D printer's spacecraft work IN BRIEF Stamford's Hexcel Corp. has invested $10 million in South Windsor additive manufacturer Oxford Performance Materials Inc. (OPM), for a total equity investment of more than $25 million, OPM said Friday. In May, Hexcel took a $15.8 million stake in the South Windsor firm, an amount later dis- closed in Securities and Exchange Commission filings. At the time, Oxford's CEO and Chairman Scott DeFelice said the Hexcel investment would help Oxford expand its production capacity. QUOTE OF THE WEEK CEQ released a draft report this week call- ing for stricter rules for solar farms seeking approval from the Connecticut Siting Coun- cil, which has authority over larger energy projects, and for the state to halt incentives for projects on farmland and forestland and to instead strengthen incentives for solar projects on landfills, brownfields and previ- ously developed properties. Economic impact Solar developers have expressed concern about the amount of such space available in Connecticut and that it may not support the major solar farms -- some as big as 20 mega- watts -- selected in a recent state-run RFP. In an interview, CEQ Executive Direc- tor Karl Wagener acknowledged those concerns and said he is not certain what capacity exists in the state on those types of parcels. But he noted a 2013 study by the National Renewable Energy Labora- HEALTH CARE BY THE NUMBERS The percentage of the 311 Connecticut employers recent surveyed by the Malta Justice Initiative who they support the idea of giving formerly incarcerated individuals a second chance. 97% $80M The amount of money Mohegan Sun is investing to build a new convention center The number of Connecticut residents who made it onto Forbes' Annual World Billionaires List. 17 The average hourly total compensation costs per employee in New England, which includes salary and benefits, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. $39.27 Source: CID insurer surveys Notes: Enrollment data as of 2015; data accounts for fully-insured plans and self-insured plans Individual Small-Group Large-Group Customers Customers (1-50 employees) Customers (51+ employees) Insurer Market Share in Connecticut tory that concluded there was sufficient property of those sorts throughout the country to meet the 632-gigawatt solar goal outlined in the U.S. Department of Energy's SunShot program. Like Agriculture Commissioner Ste- ven Reviczky, CEQ is concerned about the increasing number of massive solar farms erected or planned for farmland and forestland. The report isn't final and may well change. Wagener said the council discussed the draft report at a meeting Wednesday morning and concluded that the matter is complex and the report needs more work. He said the recommendations may change in the final version, expected to come out early next year. CEQ members will attend a meeting in January with the solar industry and the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to discuss the matter. Aetna 6,341 60,911 331,845 Anthem 50,391 33,488 1,121,266 Cigna 669 12,673 369,325 ConnectiCare 75,405 60,406 102,890 Harvard Pilgrim 0 13,849 8,709 Oxford 0 17,702 25,723 UnitedHealth 7,235 279 123,468 Telemedicine eye-test businesses face CT opposition By now, most web-savvy individuals with less than perfect vision know they can get an eye exam and prescription from a local pro- vider, then use that prescription to purchase cheaper glasses or contact lenses online. That's been a threat to brick-and-mortar eye doctors for years. Two ma- jor retailers, Warby Parker and 1-800-CONTACTS have poached at least 59,000 potential sales from Connecticut eye doctors, according to the company's own numbers. Now, those doctors face another challenge. The more recent advent of companies offering refractive eye tests through websites or kiosks threatens another key revenue source for optometry and ophthal- mology practices. Companies offering such telemed- icine eye tests include Opternative, which partners with in-state doctors who issue the actual prescription to the patient, as well as EyeNetra, Blink and MyVisionPOD. But a bill progressing through the state legislature could throw a wrench into the at-home eye exam business model. House Bill 6012, which was approved by the Public Health Committee late last month, would forbid optometrists and ophthalmolo- gists from issuing a prescription without first performing an in-person eye exam -- a service for which patients would have to pay. Proponents of the bill -- mostly eye doc- tors -- argue that refraction tests alone are not enough to assess eye health and that the technologies are unproven -- something online retailers dispute. However, even supporters of the bill admit that the risk of harm from incorrect prescriptions is rare. Meanwhile, Internet companies and several out-of-state eye doctors testified that telemedicine eye ex- ams are safe and that the bill would limit innovation and could deprive low-income residents of lower-cost options. Connecticut wouldn't be the first state to restrict online ocular exams. Just last year, Indiana, Georgia, South Carolina and Oklahoma all passed laws with similar provisions. In addition, Michigan banned refrac- tion kiosks in 2014. Screen grab from Opternative website xxxx xxxxx xxx xxxx xxx xx xx xxxx xx xxxxx xxx xxx xxx xx xxx xxxx HBJ HBJ