Addison County Independent
By John Flowers
MIDDLEBURY — Less than two weeks after residents in seven Addison County towns urged the Legislature to support universal access to primary care, a new statewide coalition has formed to lobby for a new publicly financed health care system for the state of Vermont.
The group of like-minded organizations has formed the “802 Vermont Universal Health Care Coalition.” Members include the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont; the American Federation of Teachers of Vermont; the Public Assets Institute; Rights and Democracy, Vermont; Rural Vermont; Service Employees International Union, Committee of Interns and Residents; Vermont Health Care for All; Vermont Public Interest Research Group; the VermontRacialJusticeAlliance;and the Vermont Workers’ Center.
“The coalition believes there is an impending crisis in health care that can only be averted by treating health care as a public good, and financing it accordingly,” coalition members stated in a joint press release issued Monday. “Everyone knows that health care in Vermont is dangerously close to collapse. Hospitals teeter on the brink of closure, practicing doctors struggle to stay afloat, more and more Vermonters can’t afford to get health care even if they already pay exorbitant premiums for insurance.”
Problems plaguing Vermont’s health care system, according to coalition leaders, include reduced subsidies for Obamacare that are projected to result in dramatic insurance premium increases for 30,000-42,000 Vermonters; new Medicaid eligibility standards expected to shave around 45,000 Vermonters off coverage rolls during the next several years; and what the coalition sees as a potential privatization of Medicare that could see private insurers reduce access.
In addition, Vermont has one of the smallest and grayest populations in the union, with a declining number of folks paying into the private insurance pool.
“As these current and impending disasters threaten every segment of our health care, our leaders avoid any realistic effort to prevent collapse,” reads a statement from the coalition. “Vermont’s many unsuccessful efforts at reform have not addressed the underlying causes that divert resources to administrative waste instead of health care — a fragmented system with multiple plans and obstacles to care. All of the approaches so far have made administrative complexity worse and have not ensured health care for all.”
Coalition leaders said they believe the only way to save the state’s health care system would be to publicly finance the system based on ability to pay, while at the same time bypassing “insurance company middlemen.”
The group is advancing the following health care principles:
• Covering all Vermont residents.
• Replacing private insurance with public financing, and no patient cost- sharing.
• Barring waivers, a system that wraps around existing federal programs.
• A system that can be phased.
• High quality, with an emphasis on community-based primary care.
• Cost control achieved by administrative efficiency,
ignored by our Legislature,” coalition leaders stated. “It is time for our legislators to fulfill the promise of affordable health care for all Vermonters. It is not possible to kick the can down the road anymore when our health care system is in crisis. We demand that our state legislators take up legislation that will implement the principles laid out in existing statute (encoded through Act 48 of 2011) for universal, publicly financed health care.”
Middlebury’s Ellen Oxfeld is vice president of Vermont Health Care for All, a nonprofit established in 2003 to “educate the public about the advantages of a universal publicly financed health care system for
Vermont,” according to its website. Oxfeld, in tandem with Middlebury pediatrician Dr. Jack Mayer, spearheaded the successful Town Meeting Day resolutions on universal primary care in seven Addison County towns.
“Although the coalition and town meeting petition efforts are related, they are somewhat different angles,” Oxfeld explained through an email exchange with the Independent. “The town meeting resolutions were clearly a way for the public to weigh in directly through our local elections. The coalition is a way for organizations that have many different focuses (farmers, union members, public interest groups, racial justice, etc.) to weigh in on the importance of the health care issue for them, and for their support of universal publicly financed health care as a necessity since we can no longer nibble around the edges…”
It remains to be seen whether major health care reform legislation will make “crossover” day (March 13) in the Statehouse — the date by which most bills must be reported out of their last committee of reference to become candidates to advance to final passage.