John Bloch, VT for Single Payer supporter from Montpelier, listened in on a health care hearing overview of the health reform bills that have been introduced and sent us these observations.
Rep. Paul Poirier was given more than an hour to go over his bill H.510 “An act relating to a public health care coverage option” – having it read page by page by someone from the Joint Fiscal Office. The so called Green Mountain Health Plan is nothing more than a dolled up plan to offer health insurance not health care. Several questions were put to him by the committee to which he answered he did not know or that the Joint Fiscal Committee would work it out. He did state that he believed in co-pays as a fundamental way to control costs. He further said he wanted to expand what we have – currently some 130,000 Vermonters on Medicaid plus state employees. He made a strong statement on the individual’s responsibility to have insurance. This was taken as a reference to his plan to mandate insurance. Again health care took a back seat.
After this Rep. Topper McFaun gave a very brief presentation, saying that his bill – H.196 “An act relating to a Vermont Hospital Security Plan“) – would drop premiums by 43% and reduce workers comp by 12%. He ended by saying to Rep. Steve Maier, Chair of the House Health and Welfare Committee, “I hope we do better this year than last.”
Next Sen. Dick McCormick gave a most unusual presentation, as though he was conducting a seminar in public policy and defining what the public good was all about. He asked Rep. Paul Porier a number of questions that focused on ERISA. Sen. Racine said they needed to poll a number of lawyers as there was little case law to guide them. He mentioned a person named Pat Butler as a good place to start in finding lawyers. He then said all depended on how much money was available to do research.
Next was Rep. Mike Fisher presenting H. 372 “An act relating to the Vermont Freedom Health Plan“. He also spoke on health care as a public good. He focused on health care as his main concern, not insurance.
What struck me was the apparent fact that none of them knew much about a system-wide approach to basic problems relating to access to health care. Instead discussion kept returning to insurance companies.
***Over the next few weeks the Joint House and Senate Health and Welfare Committee is taking testimony on the six major health care reform bills currently before the Legislature. The full text of all the bills is on the legislative website.
S.88/H.100
S.181
H.196 / H.512
H.372
H.491
H.510
These are open meetings and the public is welcome to attend. We encourage you to go listen if your schedule allows. And we always appreciate if you can email us a brief report. We post the time and theme of hearings in our Events Calendar.