News Stories
Expert: State's health care needs help
August 06, 2010
By Daniel BarlowVermont Press BureauMONTPELIER – Many of Vermont's health care woes stem from the fact that the state has an ineffective patchwork system of private insurance plans and government-funded programs, a Harvard economist told lawmakers Thursday.Dr. William Hsiao, an economic professor at Harvard's School of Public Health, has been hired by the Vermont Legislature to design three new health care models for the state. Just weeks into his job, Hsiao gave a sobering assessment.Hsia...
Hsiao early diagnosis of Vermont’s health care problems: A bad case of fragmentation
August 06, 2010
Anne Galloway, Vermont DiggerThe problem with health care in Vermont can be summed up in one word — fragmentation — according to Dr. William Hsiao, the Harvard-based economist who is designing health care models for the state.Vermont’s patchwork of duplicative private, federal and state medical programs, payment systems and insurers, he told members of the Vermont Health Care Commission yesterday, leads to inconsistent care for patients, unnecessary services, waste, inefficienc...
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...
Group Takes Issue With Leddy Appointment
June 13, 2010
Burlington Free Press A health-care advocacy group is taking issue with one of two appointments made Friday to the state's Health Care Reform Commission. The group Vermont Health Care for All argued Saturday that the appointment of former state Sen. Jim Leddy of Burlington violates the law passed this year that expanded the number of commission members. The law specifies that members not be connected to a health-care provider or insurer. Leddy is president of AARP Vermont. Dr. Deb Rich...
State Seeks Healthcare Proposals
June 11, 2010
By DANIEL BARLOW Vermont Press Bureau MONTPELIER – Vermont is looking to pay someone up to $300,000 to fully design three new health care models for the state. State officials sent out a request for proposals this month for the project, which is part of S.88, a new health care reform effort passed by the Legislature and championed by Sen. Doug Racine, D-Chittenden, one of five Democrats running for governor. Two of the new health care models will be a single-payer system and a public ...
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...
House Backs Health Reform Plan
May 07, 2010
By DANIEL BARLOW Vermont Press Bureau MONTPELIER – House lawmakers, for the second time this year, easily approved a major health care reform bill Thursday including a provision to track free drug samples given to doctors, setting up a showdown with the Senate. The two-hour floor debate Thursday focused little on the requirement that drug companies report when they give free pharmaceutical samples to doctors and more on another provision requiring chain restaurants to post the caloric c...
Lawmakers Weigh Sample Drug Oversight
May 06, 2010
By DANIEL BARLOW Vermont Press BureauMONTPELIER – The political battle over a plan to track the free pharmaceutical samples given to Vermont physicians by drug companies is far from over.House Health Care Committee lawmakers said Wednesday that they would fight to include a provision requiring the drug companies to report to the Vermont Attorney General when they give out free samples to doctors.Senate lawmakers removed that part of the bill when they OK'd S.88, the health care legislatio...
Senate Kills Drug Sample Tracking
May 05, 2010
By DANIEL BARLOW Vermont Press Bureau MONTPELIER – The Vermont Senate easily passed a major health care reform bill Tuesday night, but first lawmakers jettisoned a provision that would have allowed the state to track free drug samples given to doctors. The health care bill, S.88, passed with strong support in a voice vote shortly after 7 p.m., but much of the debate focused on a plan that would require the drug companies to report to the Vermont Attorney General when they give out free p...
Health Care Rally Aims to Keep the Pressure On
May 02, 2010
By Thatcher Moats STAFF WRITER, Times Argus MONTPELIER - Singing, music, dancing and theater kept a health care rally in Montpelier festive Saturday, but the hundreds of people who took part were trying to hammer home a message they couldn't take more seriously. "We believe that health care is a human right for all people regardless of their income," Sen. Bernie Sanders shouted from the Statehouse steps to the buoyant crowd below, which appeared to number around 1,000. The mid-day...
Vermont legislature passes bill that could pave the way for statewide public option or single payer
April 27, 2010
FireDogLakeOnce again, the states are leading the way on health care reform. This past week, the Vermont House and Senate passed two versions of a bill that would essentially get a consultant to design three systems for health care in Vermont: something similar to Canadian single payer, something similar to a private system with a public option, and something similar to the recently passed federal health insurance bill.The bill, S.88, has been passed by both houses of the legislature, but a diff...
My Turn: Others Deserve Credit for Health Care Bill in Senate
April 25, 2010
Burlington Free Press I agree with the gist of your editorial "Health care study bill is logical step forward" (April 11) that supporting a study of different options is a small but rational step forward to achieving universal access to health care in Vermont in a fiscally responsible way. However, the editorial needs to take a broader look in crediting the many parties that made the passage of this legislation possible. For instance, you assert that leaders in both houses dismissed ...
On State Health Bill, an Unlikely Alliance
April 23, 2010
By DANIEL BARLOW Vermont Press Bureau MONTPELIER – Rep. Tom Koch, a supporter of a free-market health care system, had an unlikely ally when he urged House lawmakers to vote against an omnibus health care reform bill Thursday afternoon. In arguing against a bill that would cap hospital budgets, expand the Blueprint for Health program and design new health care models for Vermont, the Barre Town Republican quoted from an e-mail by Deb Richter, a Montpelier doctor and supporter of a single...
Senate Wants 3 Plans to Ensure Health Care for All Vermonters
April 09, 2010
By Nancy Remsen, Free Press Staff Writer, BFP MONTPELIER — Dr. Deb Richter is accustomed to the slow pace of progress toward the health reform she favors, but she comes back to the Statehouse again and again to push for change. She was on hand Wednesday when senators took another small step. The Senate voted 28-2 to give preliminary approval to a bill that directs the Legislature’s Health Care Reform Commission to hire experts to write three sets of plans that would...
A New Prognosis for Health Care Reform in Vermont
April 01, 2010
Posted by Shay Totten Seven Days Vermont's effort to move ahead on health care reform is getting caught in a tug-of-war between three gubernatorial candidates, all of whom have a say in how bills move through the state senate. The Vermont senate’s gubernatorial trio failed last week to settle differences over a sweeping health care reform effort and hoped to come to a mutual agreement this week. Instead, two of the senators want to amend the bill over the objections of a third. ...
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...
Racine wants $400k to plan health reform
March 17, 2010
By DANIEL BARLOW Vermont Press Bureau MONTPELIER – Sen. Doug Racine pitched his health care reform plan to the cash-strapped Senate Appropriations Committee Tuesday afternoon, facing one of his opponents in the upcoming Democratic primary for governor. Racine, a Chittenden County Democrat running for governor, is looking for about $400,000 to design three major health care overhaul plans for Vermont. His plea for funding Tuesday landed before a committee chaired by Sen. Susan Bartlett,...
Once Upon a Time
March 17, 2010
Once upon a time By RICHARD DAVIS Brattleboro Reformer Once upon a time, there were two single payer health care bills floating in the Vermont House and Senate, H.100 and S.88. At the start of the legislative session, supporters of the bills had reason to believe they would be discussed in committee and that they might move forward. One of those who made a commitment to those bills was Sen. Doug Racine, D-Chittenden, chair of the Senate Health Care Committee. A week ago, Racine introduce...
Candidate Racine Unveils State Health Reform Bill
March 11, 2010
By DANIEL BARLOW VERMONT PRESS BUREAU MONTPELIER - Sen. Douglas Racine unveiled his long-awaited health care reform bill Tuesday, a proposal that would pave a path toward a state-financed system that covers all Vermonters regardless of income. Racine, the chairman of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee and a Democratic candidate for governor, said his bill would design three new health care models for the state and have them ready for Vermont's next governor to implement. The bill, int...
Health Reform Less Partisan at State Level
March 01, 2010
By Louis Porter Vermont Press Bureau There were two meetings in Washington D.C. on the health care system over the last week or so that could hardly have been more dissimilar in character. A majority of the members of the National Governors Association met a week ago Sunday to talk about attempts in their states to lower health care costs and increase the portion of their residents who have health insurance. For an hour and a half governors, without scripts or aides prompting them, talked on t...
Vermont Says State Could Run Catamount Health for Less
February 20, 2010
Burlington Free Press By Nancy Remsen, Free Press Staff Writer MONTPELIER — Consultants who analyzed administrative expenses for the public/private management of the state’s Catamount Health insurance product over the past two years concluded it might have cost $1 million less per year had the state run it. The Douglas administration disputes this conclusion. The Legislature created Catamount Health in 2006 to give Vermonters without health insurance a more affordable option. ...
Federal Stalemate Hampers State Health Care Reforms
February 18, 2010
Addison Independent John Flowers MIDDLEBURY — While the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant and a tight state budget continue to generate most of the headlines out of the Statehouse, lawmakers continue to work quietly and methodically on another major issue: Health care reform. Local lawmakers provided an update on further health care reform efforts at Monday’s legislative breakfast at the Middlebury Legion. Rep. Steve Maier, D-Middlebury, said the House Health Care Committee...
Vermont Must Find Health Care Savings
February 11, 2010
Matt Dunne, Burlington Free Press A year ago we had great hopes for serious health care reform on the national level. However, it's becoming more clear, especially after the election in Massachusetts, that we cannot count on Washington to do the job we need to do ourselves here in Vermont -- transform our health care system. Let's face it. Health care costs are driving most of the financial problems in our state. Over the last two decades, Vermont has tried a variety of small changes here...
Single Payer Needed for Vermonters Now
January 28, 2010
By Cynthia Humiston Weed (BFP) I am in favor of health care for all Vermonters because I believe it is a human right, not a privilege. In addition, I will only support a gubernatorial candidate who believes in it. Health care is a driving factor in our rising school and town budgets and in state government. Our current retirement system for state employees and teachers -- driven by the same rising health care costs -- is on the verge of bankruptcy. Lack of affordable health care is a stumbling...
In Legislature, No Shortage of Ideas on Health Care Reform
January 19, 2010
By DANIEL BARLOW Vermont Press Bureau MONTPELIER – People thought James Haslam was crazy for thinking that Vermont lawmakers would debate a major health care reform bill this year. But after hundreds turned out last week for an impassioned Statehouse hearing on health care, the hopes of the executive director of Burlington's Vermont Workers Center don't look quite so farfetched anymore. "We are operating under the belief that it has to happen," said Haslam, who helped mobili...
Hundreds at State House Urge Health Reform
January 13, 2010
By DANIEL BARLOW VERMONT PRESS BUREAU MONTPELIER - Hundreds of Vermonters filled the Statehouse Tuesday for a public forum on health care reform, with a vast majority urging lawmakers to adopt a single-payer system. The Vermont Legislature's two health care committees scheduled the forum to get direction from residents as they prepare to study a host of dramatic changes to Vermont's health care system, including a single-payer system, a public option and other proposals. U.S. Sen. Bernard S...
Hundreds Attend Health Care Hearing
January 12, 2010
Bianca Slota - WCAX News Scanning the Vermont House chamber Tuesday night it was pretty obvious which side of the healthcare debate most of the attendees were on. A majority of the more than 120 people who signed up to speak during the joint hearing of the House Health committee and Senate Health and Welfare committees told lawmakers they support establishing a single-payer healthcare system in Vermont. "I believe the single-payer system is the way we can achieve comprehensive, high quali...
Public Hearing on Health Care Promises to Turn Personal
January 10, 2010
By Kevin O'Connor STAFF WRITER (TA) Richard Davis didn't want knee replacement surgery four days after Christmas. But having already paid $2,700 of his $3,000 annual health insurance deductible, the 60-year-old Vermonter didn't want a bigger bill with the start of this new year. "Do I pay $300 now or $3,000 later?" the Guilford man said just before his operation. "I had emergency back surgery in December 2001 and complications in January 2002 and ended up paying the deduct...
Workers Lobby for Single Payer Health Care
January 06, 2010
Workers Lobby for Single Payer Health Care (VPR) (Host) Several hundred people went to the Statehouse today to lobby for a single payer health care system. Legislative leaders promised they would explore the single payer approach, but they didn't commit to having a vote on the issue this year. VPR's Bob Kinzel reports. (Kinzel) The rally was organized by the Vermont Workers Center and it was the culmination of a series of public hearings that the Center held throughout the state over the p...
Rally for Health Care Reform in Vermont
January 06, 2010
Rally for health care reform in Vermont (WCAX) A coalition of organizations rallied Wednesday at the Vt. Statehouse urging lawmakers to push for health reform on the state level. About 80 people-- from nurses and teachers unions to health care nonprofit organizations-- arrived with 4,000 postcards supporting a single-payer system to insure every Vermonter. Lawmakers are looking at a number of plans but make no guarantee about taking action this session. "It is time for change!" said...
GOP Stalls Sanders\' health plan
December 17, 2009
Rutland Herald GOP stalls Sanders' health plan By DANIEL BARLOW Vermont Press Bureau MONTPELIER – U.S. Sen. Bernard Sanders expected to make history Wednesday. Instead, his amendment to create a single-payer health care system was used as a tool by Senate Republicans to create gridlock in the chamber as they sought to derail the health care reform plans of Democrats and President Barack Obama. "That is an outrage," said the Vermont independent on the floor of the Senate Wed...
Forum for Single Payer Planned
December 14, 2009
Time Argus By DANIEL BARLOW Vermont Press Bureau MONTPELIER – Vermont lawmakers will begin a new year of health care reform discussions with a massive public hearing at the Statehouse in early January. The chairmen of the House and Senate health care committees will convene a public hearing on the evening of Tuesday, Jan. 12, in the chambers of the Vermont House as they begin new deliberations on changes to the state's health care system, including considering a single-payer option. J...
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...
Unemployed Could Lose Health Insurance Subsidies
December 02, 2009
Unemployed could lose health insurance subsidies Burlington Free Press By Dan McLean, Free Press Staff Writer Federal subsidies that cover about two-thirds of the cost of COBRA health care for unemployed workers began to run out Tuesday, according to a report issued by Families USA. A roughly $25 billion slice of the $787 billion stimulus plan approved in February was designated to help unemployed workers continue on the health insurance plans of their employers, through the COBRA program, b...
Vermont Must Lead On Health Care
December 02, 2009
Burlington Free Press My Turn: Vermont must lead on health care By James Haslam At a public forum on health care in White River Junction, Dave Reynolds, the health care representative from Sen. Bernie Sanders' office, compared an American hospital with a Canadian hospital. Both hospitals had 900 beds; both were in urban centers and were teaching hospitals, as well. The American hospital was connected with Duke University in North Carolina; the Canadian one was in Toronto. "The Duke hos...
Health Care Debate to Take Center Stage for Vermont Lawmakers
November 22, 2009
Heath care debate poised to take center stage when Vermont lawmakers return this winter Time Argus By DANIEL BARLOW Vermont Press Bureau MONTPELIER – The question Rep. Paul Poirier hears from Vermonters most is, "What the heck are you going to do about these premiums that keep going up and up?" Poirier, a Barre City state representative, has a long memory of health care reform. The former Democratic House Majority Leader, now an independent, was at the center of health car...
Forum Rallies for Single Payer
November 22, 2009
Forum rallies support for single-payer care NEAL P. GOSWAMI Bennington Banner BENNINGTON -- Several panelists spoke in favor of a single-payer health care system at a health care forum Thursday night, but significant barriers remain to achieving that goal. The forum, organized by the Vermont Workers Centers, was meant to rally support for pushing state officials toward a single-payer system in Vermont. The center is seeking action in the upcoming legislative session on House and Senate bills...
Sanders Not Quitting on Single-Payer
November 10, 2009
Burlington Free Press Sanders not quitting on single-payer By Nicole Gaudiano, Free Press Washington Writer WASHINGTON — As the spotlight on health care reform shifts from the House to the more conservative Senate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., will be pushing for a hard left turn in the form of a single-payer system. The Vermont independent acknowledges that a plan to create a national single-payer system like Canada’s, in which the federal government would be the only sou...
After All the Fuss, Govt Health Plan to Cover Few
October 31, 2009
(NYT) By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) -- What's all the fuss about? After all the noise over Democrats' push for a government insurance plan to compete with private carriers, coverage numbers are finally in: Two percent. That's the estimated share of Americans younger than 65 who'd sign up for the public option plan under the health care bill that Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is steering toward House approval. The underwhelming statistic is raising questions about whether the...
Sanders to push for single payer
October 29, 2009
Article published Oct 29, 2009 Times Argus Sanders to push for single-payer By DANIEL BARLOW VERMONT PRESS BUREAU MONTPELIER — U.S. Sen. Bernard Sanders will likely make history this year when — for the first time ever — he brings a bill creating a national single-payer health care system to the floor of the Senate for a vote. As a compromise on a public-option plan that would allow states to opt out gains steam in the U.S. Senate, Sanders, a Vermont independent, continu...
Meet the New Health Care Reform, Same as the Old Health Care Reform
October 26, 2009
By Aaron E. Carroll, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Indiana University School of Medicine The Huffington Post We’re so close to health care reform! Even Paul Krugman is starting to talk about what comes next. Me? I’ve been thinking about what comes next for a long time. I think this bill will pass. We will get the incremental reforms we were promised. Things will likely get better in the short term. Then, since we didn’t contain costs, we’ll need to enact real ref...
Health Care Reform: What is the Make or Break Issue?
October 14, 2009
Health Care Reform: What is the ‘Make or Break’ issue? It’s the COST Vermont Business Magazine Cornelius Hogan The uncontrolled rising cost of health care is a virulent cancer that is infecting all aspects of our economic and family lives. It has metastasized well beyond what it has done to our ability to obtain access to health care. It is having deep and serious impacts on the economies of our families, businesses, our communities and states, our economy in general. It i...
Single Payer MDs Not Invited to the White House
October 09, 2009
Video clip from The Reel News Network....
Myth of the Medicine Line
June 28, 2009
Montpelier Article published Jun 28, 2009 (RH/TA) Myths of the medicine line A cross-border argument for Canadian-style health care Randal Smathers Myth: In Canada, government bureaucrats decide who gets treated, when and by whom. Canadian doctors have both private and hospital practices, same as here; they get paid by the government instead of Medicaid, Medicare and dozens of private insurers. Optional services, like cosmetic or laser eye surgery, are paid privately. Myth: All U.S. docto...