By: Melinda Moulton, CEO/Redeveloper of Main Street Landing & Single Payer Supporter

For over 26 years Main Street Landing has provided 100% Health Coverage for our employees and their families at no expense to them. Main Street Landing pays 23% of our payroll toward health insurance for our employees and their families. Why – because we believe that health care is a human right. That said, we are finding it increasingly difficult to provide this benefit because of theescalating costs of insurance premiums.

According to the Business Coalition for Single Payer Healthcare:

“For the same amount of dollars we are paying to cover 85% of the population poorly, we could cover everybody with a first-class system.  Yes – Medicare is more costly today because it covers only the people the for-profit industry doesn’t want; seniors and end-of-lifers.  But fold in the younger generations, and the average cost is actually less.”

Winston Churchill once said, “America will always do the right thing, but only after failing at everything else.” Haven’t we failed our citizens? Haven’t we bankrupted families – burdened businesses – ignored and punished the disenfranchised all while lining the pockets of the insurance and health industries?


Just ask any business in Vermont “Can you afford to provide quality health insurance for all your employees”?  Most will give you a resounding “No!” I believe if you get sick you should get care and that single payer should write the check.

How do we pay for it? We eliminate the wasteful costs of health care – the insurance companies marketing costs, broker commissions, huge executive salaries, administrative overhead and high costs of lobbying and campaign contributions – these costs that are added to the rates then reimbursed by unsuspecting consumers.


I know Vermont can institute a cost-effective, and much better quality health care system. As a business person – my bottom line says this is about Human Decency and when you care for the people and they thrive – then business and the economy are the direct beneficiaries.