VTDigger

By Michelle O’Donnell

Last July, I packed into a room in Montpelier City Hall for the Green Mountain Care Board hearing, where they would decide whether to approve a requested rate increase from Blue Cross Blue Shield and MVP. After listening to hours of moving testimony of people directly affected by high health insurance costs, board Chair Kevin Mullin said, “We acknowledge these rates are unaffordable, but at the same time we can’t put a company out of business.”

It was a moment of shocking and rare honesty. In saying that, he admitted the true motive of our current health care system: profit. It’s this motive that led the GMCB to approve an almost 50% increase over six years in BCBS insurance rates despite stagnant wages. It’s this motive that leads the GMCB to continue to support the failing OneCare. It’s this motive that lands us with an all-payer system, where the incentive to provide care is still profit. ,,,continue at original site…