The debate over expanding health insurance coverage — and figuring out how to pay for it — is everywhere you look these days. In Connecticut, for example, the governor on Wednesday vetoed a pair of bills that would have pushed the state toward universal health-insurance coverage. M. Jodi Rell, the state’s Republican governor, said the plan for universal coverage would cost $1 billion a year — and pointed out that the state faces a projected $8.85 billion deficit over the next two fiscal years, the Hartford Courant reports. One of the bills would have opened up the state’s insurance pool to municipalities, small businesses and nonprofit agencies.

The other would have aimed to create a public insurance pool that anyone could join. Both bills passed the state’s Legislature (where the Dems are in the majority) by margins that would wide enough to override the veto — if they kept all of their supporters onboard. It’s unclear whether that will happen, the Courant says. Connecticut doesn’t have to look far to find an example of the high costs of expanding health insurance; as we noted recently, Massachusetts is making cuts in order to pay for its universal health plan.

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Universal Health Vetoed in Connecticut; Governor Cites Cost