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...
Why Not Single Payer?
February 28, 2010
Times Argus We have more than enough evidence that a single-payer system is the most fiscally conservative way to cover all Americans, yet Congress has refused to consider it seriously. People are dying from lack of access, businesses are failing while trying to pay for benefits for their employees and the U.S. economy is straining due to rising costs consuming an increasing share of the budget. The majority of physicians want single payer and the majority of Americans want single payer. With a...
Health Care Bill Faces Tough Road
January 29, 2010
Letter to the Editor (TA) It is now apparent that if any type of health care bill manages to come out of Congress, it will be so eviscerated that any attempt to call it reform would be ludicrous. Therefore it is imperative that Vermont takes the lead with its own healthcare reform in the form of "single payer" House Bill 100 and Senate Bill 88. Some of the obvious advantages of "single payer" for individuals are comprehensive coverage from birth to death, freedom to change ...
Trying for a More Perfect Union
January 22, 2010
Times Argus The Wall Street debacle cost trillions in undisclosed arrangements over and above the bailout-TARP funds which caught the public eye. None of the government intervention has addressed the underlying issues hindering the economy. One wonders if the house of financial cards will collapse again tomorrow or the day after. Furthermore, how we are going to pay for all of this? This illustrates why I think it is so important we address the health care issue at the root. We are spending fa...
Anything But Whining
January 20, 2010
Times Argus Having attended the public health care forum on Jan. 12 at the Statehouse, I couldn't disagree more with Hannah Vallerand's complaints concerning single-payer whiners. I did not testify at the hearing, but feel compelled to do so now. First of all, a significant number of persons who testified were professionals in the health care field, and with one possible exception, all were solidly in favor of strong health care reform. Secondly, the so-called "whiners" were largel...
Affording Single Payer
January 08, 2010
Affording Single Payer (BFP) This is how we can afford single-payer health care: 1. The U.S. pays $8,160 per capita for health care, two times more than other industrialized countries. 2. Thirty percent of the money spent on health care goes to administration. We pay $350 billion per year to shuffle papers for multiple insurance companies. 3. Under a single-payer plan, the estimate for administration is 5 percent of total costs. We would save 25 percent to begin with. 4. Our businesses woul...
Right Time to Take Up Health Care Reform
January 07, 2010
Right time to take up health care reform (BFP) I would like to respond to the Burlington Free Press editorial "Premature to take up health care in Vermont" in the Dec. 20 edition. The editorial said "that the push to reform the state's health care system is misguided and premature given the uncertainty of reform efforts in Washington that could upend anything Vermont tries to do on its own." This is wrong-headed. The Senate health reform bill seems little more than yet ano...
Vermont Can Still Lead on Health Care
January 02, 2010
By Rep. Sandy Haas (The Prog Blog) In his December 16 St. Albans Messenger editorial, Emerson Lynn asserted that the Vermont legislature should not “waste time” talking about health care reform. That, of course, is the position of the 40 Republicans in the U.S. Senate, who voted to prevent debate a health insurance reform bill. Perhaps Mr. Lynn would also refuse to listen to the many, many constituents who stop me on the street to plead that we do something to reduce the crippling c...
Keep Reform Focus on Single Payer Bills
December 06, 2009
Letters to the Editor (BFP) Keep reform focus on single-payer bills Rep. Paul Poirier is considering a bill that would require all Vermonters who are not covered by Medicare, Medicaid or other public programs to purchase private insurance. However, to call this proposal a "single-payer" proposal, or even to say that it might lead to a single-payer system, is misleading. It is true that Rep. Poirer is advocating rolling all state plans (Medicaid, VHAP, Dr. Dynasaur and Catamount) in...
The Health Care Debate Continues
November 19, 2009
Letters: The health care debate continues Bennington Banner As the health care debate has unfolded over the past few months, I have been listening to the various opinions put forth, pro and con. Some people think that health care should be a privilege, a commodity, remain tied to a job, and to make sure the insurance companies can have a tidy profit margin. I am not one of those. I think about the everyday people of our country. The widening dichotomy between those who have a lot and ...
Lobbyists Hijack Process
November 14, 2009
(Times Argus) I am sick and tired of our political process being hijacked by the lobbyists. It affects the wars, our environment, our food and our health care. I am sorry that so many people can be bought. Single-payer is the only way to go. Almost everything else is a Band-Aid on a broken system. Carolyn J. Ridpath Montpelier ...
Single Payer is Logical Choice
November 11, 2009
Times Argus Single payer is logical choice In the next session of the Legislature, S.88, a "Single payer" health care bill, will have hearings in the Senate Health and Welfare committee, chaired by Doug Racine. (The House Health committee has a similar bill, H.100, but Chairman Steve Maier has refused to hold hearings so far.) Single payer would be the fairest and most efficient way to ensure that everyone enjoys quality, comprehensive, and affordable medical care from the cradle to ...
Educate on Single Payer
October 26, 2009
Article published Oct 26, 2009 Rutland Herald Educate on single-payer At a recent forum hosted by the Friends of the Ripton Church, physicians Jack Mayer of Middlebury and Jeff and Carrie Wulfman of Ripton, and Middlebury College professor Ellen Oxfeld stressed the urgent need for reforming American health care. Dr. Mayer summarized the essence of the issue: We must make a moral commitment to health care as a human right, and not a commercial commodity. When we and our elected repres...
We all Need Medical Care
October 09, 2009
Letter published in the Times Argus on October 9, 2009: I want to thank Louis Porter of the Vermont Press Bureau for his story "Slow Pace of health care reform sparks ire" about the health care as a human right forum held on Sept. 22 at the Montpelier High School. The article speaks for itself, about how Liz Zundel and I testified on our experiences within the current system to an audience of between 80 and a 100 people and a panel of legislators from around Washington County. ...