Headlines about “advancing” health care reforms would be encouraging if Vermonters weren’t already living the crisis Seven Days documented back in January. Your January 22 episode of “Stuck in Vermont” and follow-up Q&A [“An Apple a Day: Vermonters Are Struggling With the Rising Costs of Health Insurance, and Some Are Choosing to Go Without,” January 28] showed families facing $31,000-plus premiums and exposure above $50,000 — numbers that should have jolted the legislature into action months ago. Instead, we’re now being offered a 10-year glide path and a stack of reports that look more like political cover than real reform.
Kurt Staudter said it plainly in the Vermont Standard: “…towns … asked about universal primary care, and it was supported overwhelmingly. Lawmakers, on the other hand, will once again let the issue die in committee.” That critique feels even sharper today. Vermonters paying three to four times what residents of other states pay don’t need another decade of process. They need clarity, courage and cost relief.
Seven Days’ reporting made the stakes unmistakable: Vermonters are going uninsured, delaying care or rationing treatment because the system is unaffordable. The Senate’s response — a long timeline and vague promises — doesn’t match the urgency of the problem.
There is a better path. Vermont already proved through childcare reform that a small, broad-based payroll tax can fund a major public good quickly and responsibly. Pair that with reference-based pricing to rein in hospital charges, and we could move rapidly toward universal primary care while stabilizing costs.
Vermonters deserve more than obfuscation. They deserve a system that works — now, not in 2036.
Gabriel Lajeunesse
Montpelier