In the News
VT for Single Payer has compiled recent news articles and letters to the editor about Single Payer Health Care in Vermont. To view all the recent news stories click here. To view all the recent letters to the editor click here.
Recent News Stories
Medical Emergency
July 26, 2010
Editorial, Bennington BannerThe severe shortage of primary care doctors in the Bennington area, which is not unlike most areas of the region, and probably the nation, illustrates the warped nature of health care in the United States.The warp in the system stems directly from the for-profit nature of much of what we have for health care and health care insurance. It is understandable, given the profit motive we've allowed to overrun health care here, and attempts to control the runaway costs of c...
Taking Charge
July 11, 2010
Times ArgusVermont's difficulties in aligning its health care programs with the demands of the new federal health care law are further evidence of the inadequacy of patchworks fixes.The fixes embodied in both state and federal programs are patchwork because they are about providing health care coverage, not providing health care. State and federal governments continue to perform contortions to provide health care to Americans by making sure they have health insurance. But insurance and health ca...
Harvard Teacher Wins Health Care Bid
June 29, 2010
By DANIEL BARLOW Vermont Press Bureau MONTPELIER – A Harvard professor who helped design Taiwan's health care system was chosen Monday as the man who will design three models to remake Vermont's health care system. The Health Care Reform Commission voted unanimously Monday afternoon to choose Dr. William Hsiao as the leader of an effort that could bring about dramatic changes to how Vermont handles health care. Hsiao, who testified before the Vermont Legislature earlier this year, w...
Vermont Health Reform Panel Recommends Analyst
June 29, 2010
By Nancy Remsen, Free Press Staff Writer MONTPELIER — The Health Care Reform Commission recommended Monday that the Legislature hire the Harvard economist who helped Taiwan revamp its health-care system for a six-month, $300,000 health research project for Vermont. The consultant’s task: Give lawmakers three roadmaps the state could follow to achieve a more efficient and accessible but less-expensive health-care system. One must be a government-financed system, and another must in...
Editorial: Perception Matters in Keeping Public Trust
June 17, 2010
Burlington Free Press Maintaining the public trust in politics can often be about perception. By that measure, House Speaker Shap Smith's decision to appoint former state Sen. Jim Leddy to the Health Care Reform Commission runs counter to the public interest. Dr. Deb Richter, chairwoman of the health care advocacy group Vermont Health Care for All, is calling for Leddy's removal because of his ties to AARP, formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons. Richter insists ...
Advocate Criticizes Appointment of AARP President to Health Reform Panel
June 15, 2010
By DANIEL BARLOW Vermont Press Bureau MONTPELIER – A single-payer health care advocate filed a complaint with the Attorney General Monday contesting the appointment of a consultant to the state's Health Care Reform Commission. Dr. Deb Richter of Montpelier said that James Leddy, a former Vermont senator, should not serve on the legislative committee because he has ties to the insurance industry via his role as volunteer president of the state's AARP chapter. Richter, one of the founde...
Vital Signs Shaky for Catamount Health
June 06, 2010
By Louis Porter Vermont Press Bureau - Published: June 6, 2010MONTPELIER – The state's landmark Catamount health insurance program is not terminally ill, but it needs a checkup.A smaller-than-expected infusion of federal money and other factors mean the nearly four-year-old program needs help – about $3.8 million – from the state's General Fund to stay afloat this fiscal year, sooner than expected. The goal of having 96 percent of Vermonters insured by the end of 2010 seems unl...
Vermont Lawmakers Hear about Single Payer Health Care
March 19, 2010
Vermont lawmakers hear about singlepayer health care (BFP)MONTPELIER -- An economist who helpedTaiwan and other nations create their healthcare systems told Vermont lawmakers Thursdaythat a single-payer plan can lower costs, but isnot necessarily a foolproof remedy.William Hsiao, an economics professor atHarvard University, testified before House andSenate health committees as Vermont legislatorslook for ways to broaden health care coveragewhile also curbing escalating costs."Single-payer c...
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
AARP Ties Represent Ties to Health Insurers
June 30, 2010
Burlington Free Press Senate bill S. 88 clearly states that the commission shall consist of no members with a relationship to health providers or insurers. Jim Leddy as president of AARP Vermont obviously has such a relationship, volunteer or not. Since one of the designs mandated in S. 88 is a single-payer-type health care plan, any tie to the health insurance industry is an oblivious conflict of interest. AARP makes a substantial portion of its income from brokering so-called Medi Gap poli...
Tool of Insurance Industry
June 25, 2010
Rutland HeraldAlthough Jim Leddy, the representative of the AARP members to the national organization, is a principled man, one question not yet answered is “Why appoint him?”AARP is a billion-dollar-a-year business, with $600 million of its revenue generated by merchandising — and AARP gets 10 percent on the premiums it generates through policy packages it merchandises to Vermont’s elderly.So why should this particular principled man get appointed to the commission? Why ...
Shap Smith's Appointment Against Law
June 15, 2010
Shap Smith's appointment against the law (RH)Naming Leddy violates law Shap Smith, speaker of the Vermont House of Representatives and a lawyer practicing in Burlington, is not above the law and therefore will need to rescind his appointment of Jim Leddy, president of AARP in Vermont, a health insurer, to the state’s Health Care Commission. The law recently passed known as S.88 clearly states that the “two non-voting members with experience in health care shall not be in the employ o...
Need a Good Health Planner
May 31, 2010
Need a good health planner (Rutland Herald)Now that S.88 has become law, we will need a good architect to design a health care system for Vermont that is universal and can contain costs.Your editorial of May 23 mentions professor William Hsiao of the Harvard University School of Public Health. Professor Hsiao testified before the Legislature this past year at the request of Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin.Professor Hsiao is one of the world’s leading experts in designing universal h...
Douglas: Sign Health Care Bill
May 17, 2010
(Rutland Herald)The Vermont Legislature recently passed S.88, a health care reform bill. Vermont and Massachusetts have led the nation in health care reforms. These reforms have not been perfect, but are steps in the right direction. The 2010 federal health care bill was based in part on the Massachusetts model (signed by Mitt Romney) and the Republican health care plan presented in 1993 (individual mandates and minimum benefit packages) as an alternative to the Clinton plan, proposed by Republi...
Time Ripe for Single Payer
March 22, 2010
Rutland Herald We Americans are alone among the citizens of the industrialized nations of the modern world to constrict access to affordable, quality health care for all of our people, denying it to many in fact. The corporations whose enormous profits flow from the present system (or a new one that would guarantee their advantage) have such a grip on the policymakers that widespread citizen efforts are effectively ignored. Vermont for Single Payer is organized to promote state-level, single-p...
What Burton Actually Said
March 18, 2010
What Burton Actually Said (BFP)There he goes again. Burton's decision to move its manufacturing jobs to Austria led the governor to say that taxes need to be rolled back. But the CEO said nothing about state taxes, which are a very small component of business costs (and of course we have no idea how much Burton pays, although we do know they received $1.8 million in EATI/VEPC credits and were just awarded another $1.6 million in VEGI/VEPC "incentives").The CEO did mention health care c...
Finding Way to Health Care
March 18, 2010
Published: March 18, 2010 (Rutland Herald)The Rutland Herald has published two letters from Michael and Judy Olinick relating to Vermonters' access to health care. These letters have been followed each time by an "answer" by Ralph Colin.I believe the Olinicks' first letter was a statement offered for readers to consider on the merits of the information offered. Mr. Colin's first response resorted to name calling and insults along with stating his version of the facts. The Olinicks' sec...
Single Payer Entirely Possible
March 09, 2010
Rutland HeraldReplying to our March 4 letter, Ralph Colin asks us to explain how an individual state can adopt a single-payer health plan "without overthrowing the federal government" or eliminating "the requirement" that businesses contribute toward health insurance (or health care) for their employees.Neither we nor any single-payer supporters we know advocate overthrowing the federal government. And of course there is no requirement at all that businesses fund health care ...
Vermont Must Act on Health
March 04, 2010
Rutland Herald It should be clear now that whatever anemic health care bill President Obama wrings out of Congress will be a mockery of the thoroughgoing reform he promised during his campaign. The bill may include a few improvements to the current system, but there is no chance that it will achieve the goal of affordable comprehensive health care for all, irrespective of employment or income, that citizens of Canada, Britain, France, Germany and most other modern democracies enjoy as a basic r...