By Diane Golding, Saxtons River, VT

My husband and I (61 and 62 years of age) had health insurance through  Blue Cross Blue Shield of VT. The only plan we could afford was the high deductible one ($5,000 stacked). We were paying  about $480 a month with no benefits. We decided to apply for Catamount Health coverage but in order to do so we had to be off  Blue Cross Blue Shield for 1 year. We took the risk and after one year got on Catamount’s Premium Assistance plan and finally were able to get good coverage. After one year on this plan we were notified upon yearly review that our income was $66.00 over the limit for premium assistance and that we would have to do a full pay of $830.00 a month.  That is unaffordable for us, (about 1/4th of our income), so we are now back to being uninsured.  Catamount turned out to be very disappointing for us. Single payer is the only true way to go for Vermonters.