Recent News Stories
Health Care Reform Passes in Vermont
May 02, 2012
WCAXMontpelier, VT. -- A happy exchange over the health care exchange-- lawmakers shook hands in congratulations Wednesday, as they passed one of the most controversial bills of the session out of conference committee."Everyone at this table signed the conference committee report and supports the bill going forward, everyone at this table and a majority of members of the House and Senate support the creation of the exchange," said Rep. Mike Fisher, D-Lincoln.The health care excha...
Senate gives final approval to health care exchange bill
April 25, 2012
VTDigger The Senate passed H.559, the health care exchange bill, Tuesday evening, 20-7. The legislation allows Vermont to take advantage of federal subsidies and tax credits associated with the federal Affordable Care Act. The Shumlin administration plans to use the exchange as a stepping stone toward financing a single-payer health care system. The bill requires individuals and employers with 50 or fewer workers to buy insurance through the exchange beginning in January 2014. Vermont is th...
Health Care Exchange Heads to Senate Floor
April 23, 2012
Rutland Herald By Peter Hirschfeld Vermont Press Bureau MONTPELIER — The Senate this week is on course to approve a health care bill that could soon change the way thousands of Vermonters purchase insurance. Sen. Claire Ayer, chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare, said Sunday that she expects a floor debate either today or Tuesday on legislation establishing the so-called “health benefits exchange.” Likened to a health insurance version of the Hotwire ...
Doctor-flight fears may be overblown
March 29, 2012
Stowe ReporterGreen Mountain Care, First of two articles: By Lisa McCormack Fears that physicians will leave Vermont if the state enacts universal, single-payer health care may be unfounded.Many local physicians say they favor single-payer because it would lower their administrative costs and reduce their current paperwork headaches.Others support health-care reform because it would give their patients affordable access to care.And at least 200 physicians from across the U.S. have said they woul...
Vermont Ponders Ripple Effect of Changes to Health Care Law
March 26, 2012
In an interview conducted for VPR news, Governor Peter Shumlin explains that single payer is still possible and necessary in Vermont, and that he is firmly committed to creating a single payer system in Vermont regardless of the outcome of the Supreme Court decision regarding the Affordable Care Act. See below: Vermont Public Radio Bob Kinzel (Host) Governor Peter Shumlin says his health care reform initiatives will still be viable if the U.S. Supreme Court strikes ...
Spin Doctors
March 21, 2012
Seven DaysAn industry defector warns of outside influence in the single-payer debateBy Kathryn Flagg Maybe you’ve seen the commercial [1]. It debuted on Vermont airwaves last month, and the message goes something like this:“Governor Peter Shumlin and the Democratic majorities in Montpelier want to completely uproot our health care system and spend more than $5 billion on a single-payer health care scheme,” says a middle-aged woman sitting down to tea in her kitchen. She looks e...
HEALTH CARE REFORM DEAD? NOT IN VERMONT
March 02, 2012
The American Reporterby Randolph T. HolhutChief of AR CorrespondentsDUMMERSTON, Vt. -- While the national media was fixated last week on the kabuki theater of the new Republican majority in the U.S. House voting to repeal last year's health care reform bill, they missed another, more important, development in Vermont.As the House Republicans engaged in empty symbolism with its repeal vote, the Vermont Legislature took its first step toward developing a single-payer health care system that could ...
Health Care Exchange Bill Clears Committee
February 16, 2012
VTDiggerThe complicated and controversial health care bill cleared a House committee Thursday after weeks of tinkering and some close votes.Eight members of the committee voted to approve the bill with the two Republicans on the committee, Jim Eckhardt and Patti Komline voting against.For nearly a month, members of the House Committee on Health Care wrestled with legislation that lays the ground work for a health benefits exchange.The confusion surrounding the exchange and the intersection betwe...
Shumlin's Health Care Strategy Would Pave Way for Single Payer System
February 14, 2012
VPRThe Shumlin Administration revealed a strategy on Tuesday that, at first glance, appears to undermine its own health care plan for small businesses.But as VPR's Bob Kinzel reports, the Administration's actions are geared to make it easier to implement a single-payer system.(Kinzel) Under the new federal health care law, states are required to establish their own consumer marketplace exchange where small businesses and individuals can purchase policies beginning in 2014.The federal law also pr...
HSPH Professor Helps with Vermont Health Care Reform
December 07, 2011
The Harvard CrimsonWilliam C. Hsiao is not an imposing man. He stands barely five feet eight inches tall and at age 75 affects an air of unpretentious expertise. He speaks slowly, in accented English—a remainder of his immigrant childhood—that expresses his ideas simply and logically, point by point.Despite his approachability and clarity, the points that Hsiao, an economics professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, has chosen to study and argue are neither simple nor without...
Vermont universal care seen as costing less than existing system
November 14, 2011
Amednews.comA universal health care program in Vermont would cost between $8.2 billion and $9.5 billion a year by 2020. But the state's existing health system would cost $10 billion by 2020, according to an estimate released Nov. 1 by the Vermont Legislative Joint Fiscal Office and the Vermont Dept. of Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration. Vermont's health care spending was $4.7 billion in 2009.The report is part of the process of creating a universal health care program...
Vermont universal care seen as costing less than existing system
November 11, 2011
amednews.comA universal health care program in Vermont would cost between $8.2 billion and $9.5 billion a year by 2020. But the state's existing health system would cost $10 billion by 2020, according to an estimate released Nov. 1 by the Vermont Legislative Joint Fiscal Office and the Vermont Dept. of Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration. Vermont's health care spending was $4.7 billion in 2009.The report is part of the process of creating a universal health care program...
Universal health care plan could save $1.834 billion
November 03, 2011
VTDiggerThe Shumlin administration’s signature “single-payer” style health care plan could save as much as $1.834 billion by 2020, according to a report released on Tuesday.That’s the best-case scenario. Under more conservative estimates, the report from the Joint Fiscal Office and Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration, [2] puts savings at $553 million by 2020. The report, produced with assistance from consultant Steve Kappel with Pol...
Gov. Shumlin and the Push for Single Payer Health Care
October 26, 2011
Governing the States and Localities By John Buntin At a time when states are struggling to comply with healthcare reform, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin sees his state's push for a single-payer system as common sense. At a time when states are struggling to comply with the provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Vermont's ambitious plan to create the nation's first single-payer health financing system might be hard to comprehend. Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin sees this initiative as ...
Green Mountain Care Board begins health care reform effort
October 04, 2011
VTDiggerBy Alan PanebakerThe five members of the recently appointed Green Mountain Care Board have their work cut out for them. Anya Rader Wallack, the board’s chair, reeled off a daunting to-do list for each of the new members at the board’s first official meeting on Tuesday.Dr. Allan Ramsay, a primary care physician at Fletcher Allen Health Care, will take the lead on payment reform, workforce development and outreach. Dr. Karen Hein, a pediatrician from Jacksonville, will focus on...
Hsiao: Better health care access helps economy grow
September 23, 2011
VTDiggerEditor’s note: This article is by Randolph T. Holhut; it first appeared in The Commons, commonsnews.org [2].BRATTLEBORO—There is a direct relationship between health and economic vitality. The lack of good health care has a significant effect on Vermont’s economy and the lives of its residents.That was the takeaway from the prominent health care reformer, Professor William C. Hsiao, an economics professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, who is advising Vermont a...
Green Mountain Care Board members appointed
September 13, 2011
VTDiggerGov. Peter Shumlin Tuesday appointed Anya Rader Wallack, the consultant who has been leading the design of a single-payer health care system for Vermont, to chair the new, five-member Green Mountain Care Board that will oversee management of the health care system in the state.The new board will continue to design some aspects of the proposed single-payer system, but will also assume ultimate responsibility for the functions now carried out by the Department of Banking, Insurance, Securi...
Vermont state employees union to see what members think of single-payer health care
August 25, 2011
Burlington Free PressBy Terri HallenbeckThe Vermont State Employees Association has stayed uncomfortably neutral on the issue of single-payer health care under discussion in the state Legislature. The union endorsed the concept of universal health care but not the details. Members, after all, have a pretty good health coverage system they’d be loathe to see change.Now, the union is looking to hone its opinion by surveying members. In a letter to members this morning, VSEA Legislative Commi...
Canadian health system more efficient than the one in the U.S.: study
August 04, 2011
National Post The Canadian health-care system may be plagued by countless stories of lengthy wait times and crowded emergency rooms, but a new study shows the amount of time and money spent on administrative duties is a fraction of that required by the U.S. system. The study from the University of Toronto and New York’s Cornell University says U.S. doctors pay an average of nearly $83,000 each for administrative costs associated with insurance documents. In Canada, for doctors based in...
Much Ado About MVP and Single Payer Health Care Reform
July 31, 2011
VTDiggerA nasty tit-for-tat ensued last week between a GOP operative and the Vermont Democratic Party over Gov. Peter Shumlin’s single-payer health care plan, and the Dems, who aggressively counter-attacked, won the dogfight.Darcie Johnston, a Republican politico and head of Vermonters for Health Care Freedom, an anti-single payer group, issued the first salvo on Wednesday and penetrated the Vermont Dems’ no-fly-zone in cyberspace.Johnston declared in an email blast that MVP Health C...
Shumlin welcomes input on heatlh care system
July 27, 2011
Rutland HeraldBy Brent CurtisSTAFF WRITERGov. Peter Shumlin said he knew there were doubters in the audience he addressed at universal health care forum in Rutland on Monday.“I know not everyone in this room or in Vermont thinks we’re on the right track with health care,” Shumlin said to the roughly 100 people gathered in the Rutland Intermediate School auditorium.But he said Vermont has nothing to lose and more than healthy living to gain if a plan to implement the first singl...
Lobbying on Vermont Health Reform Bill Cost Alot, But Exactly How Much is Unknown
July 25, 2011
Daily JournalAP, Dave GramMONTPELIER, Vt. — Hospitals, doctors, drug companies, insurers and others with a stake in health care spent more than $750,000 lobbying at the Vermont Statehouse this year as lawmakers debated landmark legislation designed to put Vermont on the road toward universal health insurance.But exactly how much was spent on the bill itself is impossible to tell. That's because Vermont's lobbyist disclosure law is vague, and the reporting system used to implement it is not...
Insurers mishandle 1 in 5 claims, AMA finds
July 04, 2011
amednews.comChicago -- Barbara McAneny, MD, says insurers' inability to consistently pay claims correctly is costing her practice a lot of money -- hundreds of thousands of dollars a year."I did a back-of-the-envelope calculation in my own practice and figured if I could get all of the implemented changes the AMA is working for, I could probably drop about $70,000 per physician, per year to our bottom line," said Dr. McAneny, CEO of the New Mexico Cancer Center, an oncology group of 10...
Insurers mishandle 1 in 5 claims, AMA finds
July 04, 2011
amednews.comChicago -- Barbara McAneny, MD, says insurers' inability to consistently pay claims correctly is costing her practice a lot of money -- hundreds of thousands of dollars a year."I did a back-of-the-envelope calculation in my own practice and figured if I could get all of the implemented changes the AMA is working for, I could probably drop about $70,000 per physician, per year to our bottom line," said Dr. McAneny, CEO of the New Mexico Cancer Center, an oncology group of 10...
Fletcher Allen paid $8.4M in executive compensation in 2008
June 15, 2011
VTDiggerPosted by Anne GallowayThe average chief executive officer’s compensation at a Standard and Poor 500 company is $11 million, according to Executive Paywatch, a website sponsored by the AFL-CIO [2].J. Wayne Leonard CEO of Entergy Corp., the company that owns Vermont Yankee, for example, made $8.2 million in 2010, or about 249 times the pay for an average worker at a nuclear power plant run by the Louisiana-based company.George Paz CEO of Express Scripts received $10 million in total...
Vermont Passes Single-Payer Health Care, World Doesn't End
May 30, 2011
David Goodman, Mother JonesAs Gov. Peter Shumlin took his spot on the granite steps of the Vermont State House, a row of people fanned out behind him wearing bright red t-shirts proclaiming, “Health care is a human right.” The slogan sounded noble, and wildly unrealistic. Until the governor spoke.“We gather here today to launch the first single-payer health care system in America,” began Shumlin, a Democrat who has been governor barely four months. “To do in Vermont...
Gov. Shumlin signs health care reform bill
May 27, 2011
Burlington Free PressMONTPELIER — Three second-year medical students wearing white jackets stood on the edge of a crowd of more than 200 people who had come to watch Gov. Peter Shumlin sign a law that puts Vermont on the road toward a consolidated health care system, publicly financed and covering all Vermont residents.“We were really involved in trying to pass this bill,” Therese Ray said. “There is a lot of support among medical students across the country.” Ray s...
A Doctor’s Push for Single-Payer Health Care for All Finds Traction in Vermont
May 21, 2011
The New York Times By ABBY GOODNOUGH MONTPELIER, Vt. — Many people move to Vermont in search of a slower pace; Dr. Deb Richter came in 1999 to work obsessively toward a far-fetched goal. She wanted Vermont to become the first state to adopt a single-payer health care system, run and paid for by the government, with every resident eligible for a uniform benefit package. So Dr. Richter, a buoyant primary care doctor from Buffalo who had given up on New York’s embracing such a syst...
How Two 50-Something Women Put Vermont on the Path Toward Single-Payer Health Care
May 09, 2011
Huffington PostBy Wendell PotterWhile several states are suing the federal government to block health care reform and dragging their feet on implementing any part of it, Vermont this week will be taking a giant leap in the other direction -- toward universal coverage and greater cost control -- when Gov. Peter Shumlin signs legislation putting the state on the path toward a single-payer health care system.The Vermont House last week voted 94-49 to approve legislation that has been years in the m...
Vt. physician’s work pays off on health care
May 02, 2011
By DAVE GRAMThe Associated Press MONTPELIER — Even now, Dr. Deb Richter is haunted by images of some of the patients she saw at inner-city clinics where she worked in Buffalo, N.Y., during the 1980s.One young man without health insurance didn’t get the early intervention he needed for diabetes. He went blind, got an infection and died at 21. His sister, who also had lived with juvenile diabetes, delivered a baby three months premature. The baby died. Two years later, the 25-year-old ...
Report: Health care reform could save millions
April 23, 2011
VtdiggerA new draft report [2] shows that the state of Vermont could save hundreds of millions of dollars if it adopts the recommendations outlined by H.202, the health care reform bill as passed by the Vermont House of Representatives. (The bill was altered somewhat by the Senate Health and Welfare Committee last week and the legislation, and a number of amendments, will be taken up by the full Senate at 2 p.m. on Monday.)If a single-payer style health care system is implemented, the state woul...
Vermont\'s Medicare for All Single Payer Plan
March 31, 2011
RACHEL MADDOW: Vermont's "Medicare for all" single payer plan Vermont has taken up Obama's challenge and is voting to install a single payer "Medicare for all" plan. It will cut Vermont's state expenses $580 million and is supported by Republican mayors....
Supporting Single Payer
March 26, 2011
WCAXMarch 26, 2011 - Montpelier, VermontAdvocates of a single payer health care system in Vermont rallied at the state house Saturday. It came following the passage of a single payer bill in the House this week.It had the feel of a labor rally, and in fact many of the advocates of single payer work in health care or attend medical school."What is unique and important about your presence here today is that you are saying I want to be the best doctor that I can be, but I can't be that unless ...
Hundreds Of Health Advocates Rally For Single Payer System
March 26, 2011
WPTZ Doctors Say It Would Save Money, Provide Better Treatment MONTPELIER, Vt. -- Hundreds of health advocates and lawmakers rallied for a single payer health system inside Vermont's Statehouse Saturday afternoon. The sweep of support comes two days after Vermont's House of Representatives approved a bill for a single payer system. There was little room to move as medical students and Vermont lawmakers packed the conference room. Many stood up one by one to make their appeals for single pay...
Medical students rally for single-payer system
March 26, 2011
By Daniel Staples, Times ArgusStaff Writer - Published: March 27, 2011PHOTO: More than 100 supporters of Gov. Peter Shumlin’s proposed single-payer health plan converged on the Statehouse Saturday. The group, many of them medical professionals and students, were joined by the governor and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who proclaimed Vermont could lead the way in fixing the U.S. health care systemMONTPELIER — U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Gov. Peter Shumlin spoke before health profession s...
Single payer or universal? Semantics struggle continues for health care
March 21, 2011
By Peter HirschfeldVermont Press BureauMONTPELIER — Plenty of legislative proposals this year will engender opposition. None will instill the fear that Gov. Peter Shumlin’s health-care bill has wrought on opponents of his single-payer concept.Late last Wednesday evening, in a cramped Statehouse meeting room, a crowd of more than 50 single-payer opponents listened to an invited speaker talk in grave terms about the plan.Delivering universal coverage through a publicly financed system,...
State Based Single-Payer: Health Care: A Solution for the United States?
March 16, 2011
The New England Journal of MedicineWilliam C. Hsiao, Ph.D.The United States faces two major problems in the health care arena: the swelling ranks of the uninsured and soaring costs. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) makes great strides in addressing the former problem but offers only modest pilot efforts to address the latter. Experience in countries such as Taiwan and Canada shows that single-payer health care systems can achieve universal coverage and control inflation of he...
Single-payer supporters dominate public hearing
March 15, 2011
By Peter HirschfeldVermont Press BureauMONTPELIER — When Kate Farrington’s mother lost her job, Farrington lost her health insurance.The young woman from Brattleboro is now confronting the relapse of a gynecological condition that, left untreated, could result in lifelong pain and an inability to have children.Since Farrington lacks the thousands of dollars needed to pay for treatment, “my life could be devastated at a time when the future was starting to look promising.”...
Forum leans toward single-payer health care
March 15, 2011
NEAL P. GOSWAMIBennington BannerMonday March 14, 2011BENNINGTON -- Dozens of Vermonters offered thoughts on health care reform in Vermont to members of the House and Senate Health Care Committees during a statewide interactive hearing Monday.The meeting, held at 15 Vermont Interactive Television sites across the state, was largely dominated by supporters of a single-payer health care system that would provide coverage to all Vermonters. Many wore the customary red shirts of the Health Care is a ...
What would single-payer mean for Vt. businesses?
March 09, 2011
WCAX"We're about to take one the largest undertakings in the history of the United States," said Bob Gaydos, an insurance consultant. "Employers right now have been caught off guard."Insurance expert Bob Gaydos is talking about Vermont's proposal to switch over to a single-payer health care system, called Green Mountain Care, by 2017. At this point in the process there are several unanswered questions and no one wants answers more than the employers themselves."Well, I t...
N.H. Hospital Watches Vermont Single Payer Debate
March 02, 2011
WCAXLebanon, New Hampshire - March 2, 2011Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center's Frank McDougall knows a lot of people who impact the health care industry in New Hampshire and Vermont, and all the way to the White House."We can't go on the way we are going," said McDougall, the VP of government relations at DHMC. "The system is significantly broken, the financing system. The percentage of our Gross National Product is getting to the point where we can't afford this, can't sustain it...
Obama lends support to states\' health alternative
February 28, 2011
Burlington Free Press By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press WASHINGTON — In a concession over his divisive health care overhaul, President Barack Obama offered Monday to let unhappy states design alternative plans as long as they fulfill the goals of his landmark law. Addressing the nation's governors, Obama also challenged state chiefs who have sought to balance their budgets through weakening unions and curbing employees' benefits, telling them that they sho...
Whistleblower says insurers will try to undermine single-payer
February 26, 2011
By Mell Huff vtdigger Wendell Potter alleges the health insurance industry did everything in its power to discredit the movie “SICKO” Vermonters should be prepared for a campaign by health insurance companies to undermine public support for single-payer health care, an industry whistleblower declared at a Statehouse hearing Thursday. Wendell Potter, who until 2008 was a public relations executive for CIGNA, said he witnessed such a campaign in 2007, when industry pollsters rep...
On video: Doctors speak out in favor of single payer
January 29, 2011
By Anne Galloway vtdigger Physicians were in attendance at the Statehouse on Thursday. They came dressed in lab coats and scrubs, and stethoscopes dangling around their necks. The ailment they came to cure was the medical system itself: In a rare “house call” to the Capitol, they issued a prescription for Vermont’s Byzantine system of insurance and government programs – they called for a single payer health care system. About 40 Vermont medical practitioners lined one w...
Doctors Say Patient Needs are Buried in Paperwork
January 23, 2011
Times ArgusBy Kevin O’ConnorSTAFF WRITERRUTLAND — Middlebury’s Dr. Jack Mayer knows that most patients want health care reform to cut rising prices. But he, along with a growing group of Vermont medical providers, hopes to point a scalpel at piles of related paperwork.Back in 1976 when Mayer opened his first pediatric office in the tiny northernmost town of Enosburg Falls, the Bronx native often bartered his services for eggs, firewood or knitted afghans.In a larger community a...
Dean Endorses Shumlin\'s Strategy for Health Care
January 22, 2011
vtdigger Gov. Peter Shumlin announced Thursday that he would look to cut health care costs first—then figure out how to pay for a single-payer plan for Vermont. In a press conference, Shumlin repeatedly said that extending coverage to all Vermonters, and finding a way to pay for the new system, is not a big deal—compared with altering the economics of the health care system. He said the elimination of administrative waste and duplicative services will go a long way toward creatin...
Take It Back
December 09, 2009
Fair GameBy Shay Totten [Seven Days]The jaw-dropping $6.8 million retirement package [1] awarded to the outgoing president and chief executive officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont may have been illegal, according to the state’s top insurance regulator.The finding was issued last month by Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration commissioner Paulette Thabault in a six-page “show cause order” denying the insurance company’s proposed rate hikes f...
Letters to the Editor
Propaganda and Anonymity
May 12, 2012
Rutland HeraldPropaganda is the strong point of those who oppose changing our expensive health care mess into a single-payer system. An example is Wednesday’s letter from Jeff Wennberg, spokesman for Vermonters for Health Care Freedom. His anonymous “Freedom” group won’t say who gives it money. Wennberg defends nondisclosure as necessary “to protect the hundreds of Vermont small businesses and health care providers who support us from bullying and economic blackmail...
Wennberg's shifting story
May 11, 2012
Times ArgusMr. Wennberg is telling a shifting story about health care.Mr. Wennberg, in a response to my earlier letter, now seems to be backing away from advocating insurance outside of H.559, Vermont’s implementation of the exchange. This is good. I am glad he now says, “For the exchange to serve its purpose, the state needs to set the standards and approve all plans offered there.” I heartily agree. I hope we hear no more from him about insurance “outside of the exchang...
Health Care Plan Untested?
May 09, 2012
Manchester JournalTo the Editor: You may not have seen it, but the folks at Vermonters for Health Care Freedom (VHCF) have made a pretty slick 8-minute video that they apparently sent to all our Vermont legislators.The crux is that our health care reform is too untested, too complicated, just beyond our abilities to institute. That's a pretty bizarre claim.Too untested? Really?Did VHCF simply miss the fact that the entire rest of the developed world has health care systems much closer to our new...
Health Care Plan a Plus
May 09, 2012
Manchester Journal To the Editor: In his Op-Ed column, "Legislative Session Blunts Hope for Shared Prosperity" (5/3/2012), Bruce Lisman levies two complaints against the legislature with regard to health care. First, Lisman claims that the Catamount Employer Assessment will continue to be levied on employers who do not cover their employees, even though the Catamount program has been canceled. In fact, the Employer Assessment was never intended to fund Catamount Health alone. It ...
No "shenanigans" in health care reform
May 07, 2012
Burlington Free PressIn her recent opinion piece on health care (“On health matters: watch the shenanigans,” May 1), Rep. Heidi Scheuermann uses terms such as “shifty” and “shenanigans” to characterize the work of our Legislature regarding health care legislation this session. Her main complaint is that while the Catamount program has been eliminated, the Employer Assessment that paid for it (assessed on those employers who do not cover their own employees) co...
Vermont health care in intensive care
May 07, 2012
Burlington Free PressI thought robust meant healthy, strong and sustainable. So why is Bruce Lisman and his Campaign for Vermont calling themselves a “robust” effort to secure Vermont’s future (“Vermont fails badly at transparency,” April 12). Has Mr. Lisman missed the last 10 years of studies showing that the current state of health care in Vermont is heading toward the intensive care unit? Our current situation is not robust and will not remain robust with Bruce L...
Following money to insurers
May 05, 2012
Rutland HeraldMr. Wennberg complains that Vermont’s implementation of H.559 limits insurance to those who meet the criteria and are listed on the Vermont exchange. He conveniently ignores the fact that health coverage within the exchange must meet minimum standards for each of the coverage levels, bronze, silver, gold, etc. This means that the insurance companies must provide standard, well-defined coverage and compete on cost. This is good for the Vermont consumer. Insurance companies com...
Move beyond status quo
May 04, 2012
Rutland HeraldRecent commentaries have likened progress toward Vermont’s single-payer health care system to driving through a thick fog.If so, much of the fog is generated by single-payer foes such as Jeff Wennberg’s secretively-financed “Vermonters for Health Care Freedom,” which aims to push single-payer into the ditch by confusing and frightening us.Although the details of Green Mountain Care are still incomplete, the planners are not groping in the dark or pushing the...
We need accessible health care in Vermont
May 04, 2012
Caledonian RecordTo the Editor:I recently moved to Vermont to participate in and learn from the farmers and fruit tree growers of this region. I'm passionate about growing good food and caring for the earth, and I want to build a life and make a living practicing community based agriculture.However, I have major fears about pursuing this line of work because I can't afford health care or health insurance. I know that it would only takes one disaster to wipe out my savings. This experience is com...
Status Quo is Worse
May 03, 2012
Caledonian RecordTo the Editor:I would like to respond to the editorial "Tax in search of a program" in the April 12 edition of The Caledonian-Record. There were many misconceptions with this piece that need to be illuminated and, of course, too little space in which to do it.One is the ludicrous assertion that "Catamount Health is a socialist scheme that gouges money from business and showers it on Vermonters deemed worthy by Montpelier." Catamount is as much a socialized sy...
Vermonters are already in a health care crisis
April 28, 2012
Bennington BannerVermonters are already in a health care crisis.I am writing today to address some of the negative advertising targeted at the Healthcare is a Human Right Campaign. A video produced by Vermonters for Health Care Freedom claims that the new universal healthcare law will create a health care crisis for 80,000 Vermonters. In my view most, if not all Vermonters are already in the midst of a health care crisis. Private insurers are more interested in profit margins than in your or my ...
Scare tactics on health reform
April 28, 2012
Burlington Free Press I found Jeff Wennberg’s letter on April 3 “Single-payer is not the only option” interesting. Considering that he’s executive director of the Vermonters for Health Care Freedom, I expected to hear some solutions about how they would serve the health care need of all Vermonters, especially the uninsured and underinsured. None was forthcoming. Instead Wennberg tried to use scare tactics to support his stand. His points were weak and he left plenty...
Lisman has no solution
April 23, 2012
Times-Argus In the recent op-ed, Bruce Lisman writes, “Is health care reform important? Of course it is. Yet politicians in Montpelier are ‘rocketing’ us to a new system without showing us the cost.” Really, Mr. Lisman is apparently ignorant of or is ignoring four official studies commissioned by the state on health care costs since 2001. These include the Lewin report in 2001; the Thorpe report in 2006; the Hsiao report in 2011; and BISHCA report in 2011. The findings ...
Profits over health care isn't working
April 21, 2012
The Colchester SunI am writing to thank Mr. Lawrence Keyes for his letter “Willing to take the risk of health reform” in the April 5 edition of The Colchester Sun. A wrong turn on a web link led me to Mr. Keyes’ excellent letter. I hope that the editors of The Colchester Sun will forgive that I am not local.Mr. Keyes’ letter was refuting an editorial by Mr. Bruce Lisman (“Vermont fails at transparency” March 29) of a group called “Campaign for Vermont.&r...
Real affordable health care
April 19, 2012
Brattleboro ReformerMany Vermonters have expressed concerns about the transitional "health care exchange" process. It is important to keep in mind that this is not part of the single-payer system being developed by the Green Mountain Care Board. Under the benefits plan described by the GMC Board all Vermonters will have a simpler, more coordinated, incentive-driven healthcare system. Compensation for providers will be value-based -- they get paid to improve patient outcomes at the...
Ways to control health care costs
April 17, 2012
Brattleboro ReformerI am proud to support Vermont’s health care reform movement. Even former Governor Douglas said he was in favor of universal access; and he also introduced Vermont’s Blue Print for Health and Medical Home model for chronic care. These models of care have already improved health care and reduced hospitalizations and costs. The Shumlin administration is determined that Vermont’s health care (an eventual single payer plan) will succeed. He asserted in a March 26...
Health care critic offers no alternatives
April 13, 2012
Burlington Free PressI appreciated the contrast between your two contributors on health care issues, (Comment and Debate, April 3). Allan Ramsay is a physician who has practiced many years in Vermont, and who is now on the Green Mountain Care Board. He gave an insightful account of the difficulties he experienced with a fee-for-service system where reimbursements varied widely. He then discussed in some detail two attainable paths forward toward the goal of reducing costs while improving quality...
Reform opponents offer no alternative
April 13, 2012
Brattleboro Reformer In response to Jeffrey Wennberg's column ("Debating the future of health care in Vermont," March 24): Wennberg wants it both ways. He seems to deny that his group.........offers no alternative health care reform plan, yet his lengthy editorial passes up the opportunity to tell us what that alternative might be. All he has to say is "such alternatives are readily available for consideration" and "if you want an example of reforms that can work...
Old "Experiment"
April 11, 2012
Seven DaysThanks so much for the article “Spin Doctors” by Kathryn Flagg in the March 21 edition of Seven Days. It is refreshing to have the “spin doctors” shown for what they are and what they are trying to do. If anyone wants to understand what they are propagating, try going through the American, and Vermont’s, health care system like I once was obliged to do. I nearly succumbed to the experience. Like Mr. Potter going to Wise County, Va., to watch people being t...
Health Care Reform is Not Untested
April 11, 2012
The Mountain TimesDear Editor,You may not have seen it, but the folks at Vermonters for Health Care Freedom (VHCF) have made a pretty slick 8-minute video that they apparently sent to all our Vermont legislators. The crux is that our health care reform is too untested, too complicated, just beyond our abilities to institute. That's a pretty bizarre claim.Too untested Really? Did VHCF simply miss the fact that the entire rest of the developed world has health care systems much closer to our new s...
Health care is unaffordable
April 07, 2012
Rutland HeraldI moved to Vermont 10 years ago, fully expecting to retire here as I had stream of income that would get me to the age of 63 and, I thought, enough savings to make it to Social Security and Medicare. Then, slowly, the reality of health insurance hit.My wife and I watched our annual premiums grow like kudzu, choking out everything around it until it was all we could see. Premiums of $9,000, $11,000, $14,000 and up.Switching to a high-deductible policy got us some premium relief, but...
Willing to take the risk of health reform
April 05, 2012
Colchester SunBruce Lisman’s March 29 perspective in The Colchester Sun (“Vermont fails at transparency”) raises questions of risks and uncertainties as Vermonters grapple with health care. While acknowledging that significant change carries with it significant risk, I would point out that Vermonters elected Peter Shumlin as governor on his willingness to attempt to tackle rising health care costs, and to reform the unworkable system in which consumers and doctors now find them...
Vermont can do health care, regardless
April 04, 2012
Bennington BannerGovernor Peter Shumlin recently stated that regardless of the U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding the Affordable Care Act, Vermont can and must continue down the road of creating a single payer health care system. He is right.No matter what happens at the federal level, we Vermonters are already paying the bill for a broken system, and single payer is a much better way to create access to health care for all Vermonters in a cost effective way.Right now, 200,000 Vermonters are ...
Object to Scare Tactics Against Single Payer
April 01, 2012
Burlington Free PressI have to object to the coordinated campaign to convince Vermonters that our health care reform law is some crazy radical idea being foisted on an unsuspecting public. For an idea that opponents consistently mischaracterize as "radical" and destructive of freedom, it certainly has some strong support from mainstream folks.Start with passage of the law. Do you really think your Vermont state senators and representatives are wild-eyed radicals? How about the League o...
Ignorance is amiss on health care
April 01, 2012
Rutland HeraldI would like to respond to Mr. Jeff Wennberg’s commentary “Health Care Freedom at Risk” in the March 18 edition of the Times-Argus. Mr. Wennberg, the new executive director of Vermonters For Health Care Freedom, suggests that a publicly-financed health care system will, in short, eliminate choices, and turn things over to a “single, state-selected provider” that will ration our health care.This conveniently ignores several factors about the system whic...
Cost questions good for health care reform
March 31, 2012
Burlington Free PressA recent (Feb. 26) letter in the Free Press ("How will health care be financed") questioned how Vermonters will finance health care in the wake of the landmark bills passed by the Vermont Legislature in the past two years (Acts 48 and 559).The sudden emergence of citizens asking similarly thoughtful questions is a really exciting development and a sign of good things to come. The dominance of health insurance behemoths which have continued to increase rates faster ...
Support Universal Health Care in Vermont
March 28, 2012
Burlington Free PressSkeptics and opponents of Green Mountain Care want to see the money: where are the savings promised by Dr. Hsaio when he urged Vermont to go for single payer? Are the savings in all Vermonters having access to health care for the same amount of money being spent now? Are the savings in a healthier and more productive Vermont? Are the savings in employers being able to invest in their businesses and employees instead of in insurance companies?After a two-year study, the Leagu...
Doctor flight is no big risk
March 25, 2012
Times ArgusRe: “Health care freedom at risk” by Jeff Wennberg in Sunday’s paper:Mr. Wennberg makes every effort to scare Vermonters about a future in which universal health care will be implemented in Vermont.I won’t quibble with his opinions, but when he claims them to be truths, it’s time for a fact check.When he mentions that 12 physicians in Rutland recently threatened to leave our state when universal health care is implemented, it’s worth putting that in...
Health Care Predictions False
March 24, 2012
Rutland HeraldOver the last several months Wendy Wilton has garnered a lot of attention with her “Model of Green Mountain Care.” She often shares the table with prominent Republican leaders including Randy Brock. I think it is time we look at her numbers closely and share her errors with the public.Reviewing Wendy Wilton’s projections shows that a number of her facts and assumptions are inappropriate, misleading and sometimes simply wrong. It seems she entered her project with ...
Reform Puts Dollars Into Health Care
March 24, 2012
Burlington Free PressI am writing in response to a letter in the Burlington Free Press of Feb. 26 by Diane Ballou who asked how our new health care system is going to be financed before the election. “I have a suspicion that our new health care system is going to be impossible,” she wrote. To answer Ballou’s question we are already financing it to the tune of $5 billion a year, soon to be $6 billion, with costs rising by a $1 million a day.What is impossible is for the state of...
Don’t lose any sleep over supply of doctors
March 22, 2012
Stowe ReporterTo the Editor:I have to take issue with the assertions in Mr. Steve Chambers’ letter (Stowe Reporter, March 15) regarding the health-care legislation passed last year by the Vermont Legislature.He makes it clear that he doesn’t like the legislation, describing it as “reckless,” a “train wreck” and even “Marxist.”His comments were based on a recent symposium at the public safety building which brought to Stowe three staunch opponents o...
Single-payer will benefit everyone
March 22, 2012
Stowe ReporterTo the Editor:Regarding Steve Chambers’ opinion column March 8, “The Green Mountain Scare,” is trumped up by Vermonters for Healthcare Freedom, whose funders — probably the insurance industry — are unidentified.Financing for Green Mountain Care is not yet spelled out because it cannot be implemented before 2017, when the necessary waivers may be obtained. By federal law, Vermont must first create a health-care exchange, which is entirely separate and r...
We can turn around this ailing system
March 22, 2012
Stowe ReporterTo the Editor:In response to Steve Chambers’ letter March 15, “The Green Mountain Scare”:Dear Steve: If Green Mountain Care is scary, what word would you use to describe our current health-care system? The term “health care” in this country has sadly become an oxymoron. Our health care does not represent the values of decent Americans.If you look at the chart from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development published in the National Geogr...
Single Payer Plan Not Radical
March 22, 2012
Manchester JournalTo the Editor: I have to object to the coordinated campaign to convince Vermonters that our health care reform law is some crazy radical idea being foisted on an unsuspecting public.For an idea that opponents consistently mischaracterize as "radical" and destructive of freedom, it certainly has some strong support from mainstream folks.Start with passage of the law. Do you really think your Vermont state senators and representatives are wild-eyed radicals? How about t...
Working Out Health Reform Takes Time
March 21, 2012
Burlington Free PressIn her Feb. 26 letter (“How will health care reform be financed?”), Diane Ballou writes, “I have a suspicion that our new health care system is going to be impossible and so I would just like to know before the election how it is going to be financed.”Does she mean Vermont’s ultimate goal of a single-payer health care system or the temporary exchange which federal law requires us to implement first? Remember: the exchange currently under discuss...
Not a grassroots organization
March 20, 2012
Caledonian RecordTo the Editor:After attending the health care forum in Lyndonville on Feb. 27 conducted by Darcie Johnston of Vermonters for Health Care Freedom, I found it disingenuous that it was advertised in The Caledonian-Record as Vermonters for Health Care Reform. I was also insulted by the way this group was portrayed in the paper as a grassroots organization.This portrayal may be partially true. Yet, after having attended a number of health care forums and testimonies, including many a...
Freedom to be Bankrupted
March 20, 2012
Rutland HeraldTo the Editor:Joan Spaulding (“Keeping us dependent,” March 6) offers a powerful, patriotic incentive to the easily duped. She offers us all the “freedom” to stay sick, the “freedom” to have a fender-bender bankrupt us in the emergency room, the “freedom” to lose our job for lack of medical care, the “freedom” to lose our home because we lost our job, the “freedom” to join the 50 percent who are bankrupted beca...
Health care is a public good
March 13, 2012
Rutland HeraldI would like to respond to the piece, “Keeping us Dependent,” in the March 6 edition of the Rutland Herald. In this letter, the author, Ms. Jean Spaulding, writes that “Single-payer health insurance does not sound American to me.” If single-payer is not American, does this disqualify the millions of elderly people on Medicare or our military veterans with the Veterans Affairs from being American? Both Medicare and the Veterans Affairs are pure single-payer s...
Health Reform Distortions
March 13, 2012
Bennington BannerI have to object to the coordinated campaign to convince Vermonters that our health care reform law is some crazy radical idea being foisted on an unsuspecting public. For an idea that opponents consistently mischaracterize as "radical" and destructive of freedom, it certainly has some strong support from mainstream folks.Start with passage of the law. Do you really think your Vermont state senators and representatives are wild-eyed radicals? How about the League of Wo...
League supports single-payer
March 10, 2012
Times ArgusSkeptics and opponents of Green Mountain Care want to see the money: Where are the savings promised by professor William Hsiao when he urged Vermont to go for single-payer?Are the savings in all Vermonters having access to health care for the same amount of money being spent now?Are the savings in a healthier and more productive Vermont?Are the savings in employers being able to invest in their businesses and employees instead of in insurance companies?After a two-year study, the Leag...
Single Payer Secures Freedom
March 08, 2012
Rutland Herald The recent negative ads on TV and radio by the mysteriously funded group, Vermonters for Health Care Freedom, are an obvious attempt to derail any future universal health care plan. However, if they are truly interested in real health care freedom for Vermonters, as their name implies, they should actually support a single-payer system. Some of the freedoms inherent in such a plan that would benefit Vermonters are: Freedom from high premiums and large deductibles and copays, a...
Health Care Reform Can Save Money
March 08, 2012
Burlington Free Press Diane Ballou ("How will health care reform be financed?" Feb. 26) asks to know how Vermont's new health care system will be paid for. This is like expecting an excavator to give you a bid on fixing your driveway without knowing what's wrong with it, how long it is, or what kind of surface it has. Until we know what the benefit package will cover and what subsidies will be available and who will be included, we can't even guess at what it will cost. That work h...
True Health Care Freedom for all Vermonters
March 07, 2012
Washington WorldEditor: It is in the interest of every Vermonter to support the Vermont Legislature’s efforts to plan and implement a single payer health care system. It is important to realize that as a single state among 50, we must comply with the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enacted by Congress last year. Therefore, the most recent legislation passed out of the Vermont House of Representatives, H. 559, is solely working to comply with the ACA’s mandated health care ...
What is known about health care
March 04, 2012
Rutland HeraldA recent article in the Herald and Times Argus (Feb. 19) convinced me there is a lot of smoke blowing around in the conversations about the cost of changes in health care. Some is based on estimates and projections, and some is clearly purposeful misinformation. But it is all made up. The simple truth is nobody can say what it will cost because nobody knows yet what will be covered. But everyone knows costs will increase beyond our ability to pay if we continue with what we have.Th...
Misleading ad on health care
February 28, 2012
Rutland HeraldVermonters for Health Care Freedom is an apparently well-funded group that is opposed to the effort in Vermont to establish a universal single-payer health care system. They have recently begun airing an ad on WCAX that is, in my opinion, misleading. It is misleading as to the cost of the new health care system. It is misleading in that the name of the group, Vermonters for Health Care Freedom, implies that the new health care system is a threat to the freedom of Vermonters.The ad ...
Single Payer Will Cut Costs
February 24, 2012
Rutland HeraldOpponents of Vermont’s future single-payer health care system need to look ahead into the realities of health care financing in both Vermont and the nation. The Rutland Herald recently reported “universal opposition from residents” during a packed Feb. 18 forum in Wells that considered the pros and cons of a single-payer system in Vermont. The opponents might consider that Vermont chose single-payer as the best solution for its out-of-control insurance costs.A was...
Cutting Out the Middleman
February 20, 2012
Rutland HeraldThe organization “Vermonters for Health Care Freedom” is running a web ad in which a woman complains that Gov. Shumlin wants to “uproot” our current health care “system” and spend $5 billion for a single-payer system. She implies that the governor is dishonest in refusing to reveal how he intends to raise the $5 billion until after the election. The ad ignores that we are already paying $5 billion for a system in which one-third of Vermonters hav...
Vermont needs strength and will
February 16, 2012
Stowe ReporterI would like to respond to the letter “Can Vermont fix health care?” by Helene Martin in the Feb. 9 edition of the Stowe Reporter.“I worry,” Ms. Martin wrote, “that Vermont ... will not be able to afford to fix our broken health-care system, but believe we are trying.”We are trying. Like Ms. Martin, I also support a system where health care is treated as a public good, not as a market commodity. A nearly fatal journey through the nightmare of thi...
Health Care Should be a Public Good
February 15, 2012
Times Argus Misleading information and other distortions have plagued efforts for real health care reform in the past and will no doubt again in the future. For example, John McClaughry states in his recent Times Argus article (Jan. 26) that Vermont has only two health insurance carriers “thanks to laws passed in 1991 and 1992 specifically to drive their competitors out.”These “community rating” laws he referred to were established so that all Vermonters could buy he...
Can Vermont Fix Health Care?
February 04, 2012
Stowe ReporterI have long been a supporter of a single-payer system for health care. Currently, health-care costs nationally represent 18 percent of gross domestic product.I worry that Vermont, as a state with only 627,000 people, will not be able afford to fix our broken health-care system, but believe we are trying.Evidence that our health care is broken:• 50 million people are uninsured (statistics are from T.R. Reid’s book “The Healing of America”).• 30 percent of...
Green Mountain Care Criticism Premature
January 27, 2012
Burlington Free Press Randy Brock, a contender for governor in 2012, and others of his political persuasion have targeted the Green Mountain Care Board as a campaign issue. Although the Green Mountain Care Board, mandated by Act 48, has barely begun its work for real health care reform, Brock and other reactionary pundits are already trying to trash its existence even before any plan has been formulated! Expect to see more of the same during this election cycle. All other industrialized nati...
Why We Need Health Care Reform
December 12, 2011
Burlington Free Press I would like to thank Pat McDonald, chairwoman of the Vermont Republican Party, for her "My Turn" piece in the Dec. 1 edition of the Burlington Free Press ("Health Care report ignores big questions"). McDonald illustrates so perfectly why we need the complete and systematic health care reform that Vermont embarked on when Gov. Shumlin signed H.202 last May. "The government," she wrote, "needs to make smart and rational decisions, and be ...
The Morality of Health Care
November 27, 2011
Rutland HeraldI would like to thank Dr. Ted Shattuck for his commentary “Vermont can lead the way” in the Nov. 13 edition of the Rutland Herald and Times Argus. Dr. Shattuck made some valid points that seem to have gone missing from our long and tortuous debate on health care reform.In one of these, for instance, Dr. Shattuck wrote that, “22,000 to 45,000 Americans die of preventable deaths each year due to a lack of basic health care.” These are staggering statistics of ...
Community Health Care Forums Helpful
November 15, 2011
Burlington Free Press In the last few weeks, I have participated in several Vermont health care forums, including a forum sponsored by Richmond legislators Anne O'Brien and Jim McCullough, and VPIRG. Thanks to these groups, I am learning how different communities feel about health care reform. People of Vermont understand the need for universal health care coverage for everyone in our state. And no one questions that rising health care costs, close to 20 percent of our state's economy, cann...
Vermont Can Lead the Way
November 13, 2011
Times-ArgusBy Dr. Ted ShattuckOpponents of Vermont’s attempt to provide universal health care access to all of its citizens are using the usual weapons — anecdotal stories, budgetary uncertainties — to derail this vital process. While there is much talk of economics (more later), we need to keep our eye on what is really at stake: our moral right to health care, both as individuals and as a nation.Our own Institute of Medicine estimates that 22,000 to 45,000 Americans die of pr...
Commitment to Community
September 09, 2011
Rutland HeraldAll who treasure and respect life are fortunate to live in Vermont, where sense of community continues to be a key characteristic. Our experience with and continuing responses to the aftermath of Irene illustrate how caring and sharing benefit us all. When I travel, people express great appreciation for the standards and leadership of our small state.Vermont’s ground-breaking commitment to provide equitable health care to all its citizens recognizes health care as a human rig...
Single Payer Plan RIght for Vermont
July 27, 2011
Burlington Free PressI want to support the governor's health care single-payer law, signed in May, to introduce the Green Mountain Care Plan.This is the right thing for the citizens of Vermont. There needs to be a groundswell to get this type of legislature as a federal priority. I noted that the US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio ruled on June 29 that The US Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 is constitutional, including the fact that from 2014 most citizens sho...
The Six Neophytes Have Found A Solution
June 07, 2011
Caledonian RecordTo the Editor:I would like to respond to the editorial "Six Neophytes In Search of A Solution" in the May 20th edition of The Caledonian-Record. This is The Caledonian-Record's endorsement of an earlier editorial it printed by Mr. Rob Roper, where he labeled six members of the house and senate health committees who played key roles in the passing of H.202, "neophytes," as though they had little experience and less qualifications to take on the job of reformin...
Health Care Competence
June 04, 2011
Health care competenceCaledonian RecordTo the Editor:In his recent column questioning the competence of the members of the House and Senate health care committees to undertake meaningful health care reform, Rob Roper concluded with the question: 'Honestly, if you were the head of a probable $5 billion health care corporation, would you hire any of these people to run it?Our answer is, of course, not on your life.'That would not be my answer. Given a choice between the citizen legislators on thos...
Single Payer is the Answer
May 27, 2011
Rutland Herald Single-payer is not about health care — it is about paying for it. Because of a historical fluke, insurance companies got into it. When employers competed for scarce labor during World War II, offering higher wages was not permitted to prevent inflation. So they offered “free” health insurance to be more competitive. Second, insurance is based on statistics and probability, which actuaries use to calculate premiums. But since everybody needs health care soone...
Treat health care as public good
May 01, 2011
As one of thousands of self-employed Vermonters who cannot afford health insurance, the health care legislation currently in the Statehouse is very exciting. Many would have us believe that a universal health care system would take away from our freedom and choice but I can tell you by personal experience that the current system does nothing but deny me those things.If we really want to support Vermont's independent spirit we should separate access to health care from employment, so that small b...
Background on health bill
April 28, 2011
While in a meeting recently the subject of the legislation regarding the single-payer health plan currently being worked on in the Vermont Legislature came up for discussion. I admitted to the group that I did not understand it or how it would work. Then my education began. I am sure I am not the only Vermont resident who feels in the dark about this critical piece of legislation. Therefore, I want to share with everyone what it means and how it will work for the betterment of all of us.Most of ...
Doctor Survey Flawed, Irrelevant
April 20, 2011
I am truly perplexed as to why so much attention is being misdirected to Rep. George Till’s recent survey of Vermont doctors concerning single-payer health care reform. At best, it is much ado about nothing.The methodology is blatantly flawed. Barely a third of the 1,686 postcards Dr. Till sent out to doctors were completed — a very small sample — and by whom where they actually completed? I personally know of several non-doctors who responded to the survey, and others have rel...
Health care should follow the person, not the job
April 20, 2011
I am a 34-year-old Vermonter, and I believe that Vermont should move forward courageously to enact a public health care system that includes each and every one of us, without exception.In my adult life thus far, I have had a number of jobs that do not offer benefits, including seasonal and temporary jobs. I am blessed to currently hold a job with good insurance. However, many of us are not as fortunate. It is common practice for employers to offer per-diem, part-time or temporary positions to av...
Democracy to prevail in health reform
April 20, 2011
The recent news report on the meeting between IBM and other business executives and Gov. Peter Shumlin provided a chilling reminder of how government usually functions in the United States. The executives are shown entering the governor's office smiling and bristling with confidence, and perhaps even a little arrogance, that they are the ones who call the shots and that they expect government officials to do what they want.In this instance, they appear both in the television and print media to b...
Father of single payer honored in Canada
April 20, 2011
A lot of static is being generated to blind Vermonters to the truth of the universal health care program being developed in our Legislature. One of the biggest boogie men is the Canadian system, where people supposedly wait weeks for care and months for surgery. If any of this were accurate, how does one explain why Tommy Douglas, the "father of single-payer in Canada" was voted "The Greatest Canadian" of all time in a nationally televised contest organized by the Canadian Br...
Single Payer plan a big plus for Vermonters
April 19, 2011
While in a meeting recently, the subject of the legislation regarding the single-payer health plan currently being worked on in the Vermont Legislature came up for discussion.I admitted to the group that I did not understand it or how it would work. Then my education began. I am sure I am not the only Vermont resident who feels in the dark about this critical piece of legislation. Therefore, I want to share with everyone what it means and how it will work for the betterment of all of us.Most of ...
Health care reform helps self-employed
April 19, 2011
As one of thousands of self-employed Vermonters who cannot afford health insurance, the health care legislation currently in the Statehouse is very exciting. Many would have us believe that a universal health care system would take away from our freedom and choice, but I can tell you by personal experience that the current system does nothing but deny me those things. If we really want to support Vermont's independent spirit we should separate access to health care from employment, so that small...
Act on opportunity for health care for all
April 19, 2011
Now that insurance companies and "nay-sayers" are stepping in to derail our long, long battle to have health care recognized as a right of citizenship rather than something paid for by private insurers, it is urgent that we, the majority of Vermonters, let our opinions be known to our legislators. Insurance is wonderful for life, property protection and other quality items. However, our very health needs to be guarded by our society as a right of our existence, rather then how much we ...
Past time to go slow on health reform
April 19, 2011
As we look at health care reform in Vermont, people are talking a lot about having to wait to get the care we need and that there will be long lines and rationing. I don't know what health care system they are living in, but what they are describing sure sounds a lot like the system that we have now. Anybody who is uninsured or underinsured is already waiting and already rationed.The other thing that I keep hearing is that we need to go slow. We've been at it for over twenty years, so how much s...
Health care should be a public good
April 19, 2011
As someone who struggled with access to health care during college, I firmly believe that health care should be treated as a public good. The last thing that college students should have to think about is whether they will be able to stay in school or pay for doctor visits and high priced medications. This is exactly the issues I faced as an undergraduate. I have good insurance these days, but it breaks my heart to think that countless Vermont students face the same problems I faced in college.S...
Take a look at health care
April 18, 2011
(I am writing in response to Val Loureiro's letter of April 13.)Take a look at health care.The writer cites "longer waiting times, cuts in services, doctors leaving, and the possibility of smaller hospitals closing" as the potential pitfalls of health system reform. I'm curious: Has Ms. Loureiro tried to access health care in the Bennington area recently?AdvertisementIt is almost impossible to find a primary care doctor, and, if one is able to do so, appointments for new patients are n...
Single-payer would value what\'s important
April 13, 2011
My fellow physician, Dr. C.W. Cobb, asserts in his recent letter that under a single-payer system physicians would be taken for granted ("Single-payer takes doctors for granted," March 30). Yes, single-payer systems take doctors for granted. They take for granted our education, training and experience. They take for granted our dedication to our patients. They take for granted that we and our patients can decide between ourselves what care is most appropriate for each patient w...
Does Business Call the Shots?
April 12, 2011
The recent WCAX news report on the meeting between IBM and other business executives and Gov. Peter Shumlin provided a chilling reminder of how government usually functions in the United States. The executives are shown entering the governor's office smiling and bristling with confidence, and perhaps even a little arrogance, that they are the ones who call the shots and that they expect government officials to do what they want. In this instance, they appear both in the television and pr...
Single-payer Promises Solutions
April 07, 2011
Burlington Free PressOur current health care system is severely broken. We all know that. It is flagrantly wasteful of money. It is painfully unjust. The H.202 single-payer bill holds out the promise of being cost effective, and of fair solutions, e.g. equal access to health care regardless of diagnosis or social class. I urge us all to support H.202.STUART GRAVES, MDSouth Burlington ...
Bill is major step forward
April 07, 2011
Rutland Herald Bill is major step forward Since 1993 the League of Women Voters of the U.S. has had an advocacy position calling for a national health insurance plan financed through general taxes. Until that happens, the LWV of Vermont believes a state program can and should provide such health care to the residents of Vermont. Based on a two-year study, the LWVVT supports a publicly funded, single-payer comprehensive, universal, equitable health care system. There should be increased access...
Health care is a public good
April 06, 2011
Rutland HeraldI am writing this letter after reading John McClaughry’s column, “Single-payer: promise and reality.” John has got it wrong. As usual when people of his political belief try to justify their position, many times fear of the unknown is used to defend their argument.In H.202, as it passed out of the House to the Senate, it was not a single-payer bill; it was a universal health care bill. A single-payer system is one way to achieve universal health care, but there ar...
What Canadians have to say
April 05, 2011
Rutland Herald A lot of static is being generated to blind Vermonters to the truth of the universal health care program being developed in our Legislature. One of the biggest boogie men is the Canadian system, where people supposedly wait weeks for care and months for surgery. If any of this were accurate, how does one explain why Tommy Douglas, the “father of single-payer in Canada” was voted “The Greatest Canadian” of all time in a nationally televised conte...
Fomenting Fear on Health Care
April 04, 2011
(Rutland Herald) When all else fails, make people afraid of change. That apparently is the strategy of many opponents of any “universal” health care plan. For example, at a recent meeting at the Statehouse that I attended, an anesthesiologist compared universal coverage for Vermonters as leading the way to dictatorships similar to Hitler, Mao and Pol Pot. (I guess Stalin didn’t make the cut.) Another opponent at the same meeting relayed secondhand anecdotal evidence of a hospi...
My Turn: Businesses for Health Care Reform
March 31, 2011
Burlington Free PressThe Vermont House took bold and necessary action on March 24 by passing the universal health care bill, H.202. There are many businesses in this state that support reform because they believe the current health care system is unsustainable, inefficient and unfair. Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility is one statewide business association that believes inaction is not an option and that businesses large and small, all across the state, will benefit from an improved sy...
End Corporate Gamesmanship
March 25, 2011
End corporate gamesmanship (RH) Your calm and insightful editorial on the hysterical nature of opposition to the single-payer debate was much appreciated. It’s interesting to note that as the debate unfolds, the supposed ills of single-payer, as put forward by the insurance industry — long delays in treatment, cost, lack of consumer choice — are actually the very reasons that the current system needs to be either replaced or overhauled. Years ago I worked for a time at The ...
Insurers block hospital care
March 23, 2011
Rutland HeraldI appreciate the paper’s good report on the hearings held on March 14 across the state of Vermont. Each person who testified was limited to two minutes. Most of us spoke from our hearts and our own experience and therefore the timing was not precise. I was not able to finish my testimony for this reason so the quote from me which you used in the article, though accurate, needs a bit of clarification.My point was that it is the insurance companies who make the decision to deny...
My Turn: Let's have health care access for all
March 19, 2011
Burlington Free PressThe time is long overdue for this great nation to provide all of its citizen with good and accessible health care. As a public psychiatrist practicing in public clinic settings over the last 15 years I have seen how lack of insurance and underinsurance has led to extensive suffering for both individuals and their families.In my experience the hard-working middle class has been the worst affected. They make too much to be eligible for programs for the poor, but have no health...
Let Vermont lead on health care
March 14, 2011
Rutland HeraldThe time is long over due for this great nation to provide all of its citizen with good and accessible health care. As a public psychiatrist practicing in public clinic settings over the last 15 years I have seen how lack of insurance and underinsurance has led to extensive suffering for both individuals and their families.In my experience, the hard-working middle class has been the worst affected. They make too much to be eligible for programs for the poor, but have no health cove...
Support Vermont's Health Care Reform
March 13, 2011
Burlington Free PressSince 1993 the League of Women Voters of the US has had an advocacy position calling for a national health insurance plan financed through general taxes. Until that happens, the LWV of Vermont believes a state program can and should provide such health care to the residents of Vermont.Based on a two-year study, the LWVVT supports a publicly-funded, single-payer comprehensive, universal, equitable health care system. There should be increased access to primary care facilities...
Illness doesn't abide by free market system
March 03, 2011
Burlington Free PressIn his Feb. 1 My Turn, Joseph P Blanchette's "Fatal conceit" is that health and its unfortunate partner, illness, don't abide by free market principles in a just society. Under free market principles, profit and fortune amass and the nonprofitable "goods" disappear as competition thrives. In the healthcare field, the "goods", however, are people and people's lives.In our current profit-driven system, 44,000 lives annually in our country are felt...
Letter: Time to Recognize Health Care as Right
February 27, 2011
Burlington Free PressI am excited about Gov. Shumlin's proposed health care bill, H.202. For too long, our country has embraced a corrupt system that benefits insurance and pharmaceutical companies while leaving people to face insurmountable costs to accessing health care. It is a crime for large corporations to profit off of even a single person's health. Access to adequate and affordable health care is a human right that must no longer be administered along the lines of wealth, especially in a...
HIstoric Opportunity is Now
February 01, 2011
Burlington Free Press: Comment & Debate Deborah Richter, President, Vermont Health Care for All Praise has been heaped on the 120-some page report issued by the Harvard health economist, William Hsiao, and his working group. Words like historic, ground-breaking, and masterful are used, and since I entirely agree I will put them to use as well. The report is called "Act 128 Health System Reform Design: Achieving Affordable Universal Health Care in Vermont" but will ...
Vermont Applauded for Its Medicare-like Move
January 09, 2011
Boston Globe I APPLAUD The Globe for showcasing Vermont’s single-payer “laboratory’’ in its Jan. 2 editorial “Vermont: Creating a singular health system.’’ As a third-year medical student at Cambridge Health Alliance, I’ve found that it doesn’t take long to see that the current system is insufficient. The shortcomings leave patients whom I follow longitudinally with less access to community health centers, substance abuse treatment, and s...
Push for Universal Health Care in Vermont
December 22, 2010
Burlington Free PressOn Dec. 10, I heard Sen. Sanders, during a filibuster in opposition to the Obama-Republican tax bill, read letters he had received from Americans. Each one told a story of hardship and struggle to make ends meet. One person was a part time worker in Stowe who related that his hours had been decreased. The reduction in monthly income has forced him to choose walking eight miles to/from to work or heating his home this winter. God help him and his family if he were to become i...
Improving Access, Reduces Cost
December 22, 2010
Burlington Free PressEven though the United States is a signatory of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whose anniversary we observed this Dec. 10, it still treats health care as a commodity instead of a human right. Everyone needs health care, regardless of their "lifestyle." In particular, everyone needs primary and preventive care, which can both improve health and reduce the need for expensive chronic care. The idea that we can control the cost of health care by denying car...
Universal Health Care Worth the Price
December 22, 2010
Burlington Free Press I am writing to you on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Here in Vermont we still do not yet have the right to health care even though every other industrialized country recognizes healthcare as a human right. Everyone should be entitled to receive the health care they need when they need it and no one should have to pay more than they can afford. Our health care system functions as a source of income for powerful pharmaceutical, ...
Not happy with distortions of health care reform
December 22, 2010
Bennington BannerI have to object to the coordinated campaign to convince Vermonters that our health care reform law is some crazy radical idea being foisted on an unsuspecting public. For an idea that opponents consistently mischaracterize as "radical" and destructive of freedom, it certainly has some strong support from mainstream folks.Start with passage of the law. Do you really think your Vermont state senators and representatives are wild-eyed radicals? How about the League of Wo...
Moving toward comprehensive care
December 22, 2010
Rutland HeraldIn his recent letter on health care reform, Shawn Shouldice neglects to specify that his concerns refer to the transitional “exchange” process, not the single-payer system being developed by the Green Mountain Care Board.As described by the GMC board at their open meeting on March 29, this simpler, more coordinated, incentive-driven approach expands the understanding of benefits beyond clinical care to look at a systemwide approach. This includes prevention and public e...
New Healthcare Untested?
December 22, 2010
The Manchester JournalTo the Editor: You may not have seen it, but the folks at Vermonters for Health Care Freedom (VHCF) have made a pretty slick 8-minute video that they apparently sent to all our Vermont legislators.The crux is that our health care reform is too untested, too complicated, just beyond our abilities to institute. That's a pretty bizarre claim.Too untested? Really?Did VHCF simply miss the fact that the entire rest of the developed world has health care systems much closer to our...