Replying to our March 4 letter, Ralph Colin asks us to explain how an individual state can adopt a single-payer health plan "without overthrowing the federal government" or eliminating "the requirement" that businesses contribute toward health insurance (or health care) for their employees.
Neither we nor any single-payer supporters we know advocate overthrowing the federal government. And of course there is no requirement at all that businesses fund health care for employees. In fact, many employers are cutting back on health insurance subsidies or eliminating them altogether or citing the high cost of insurance as a reason to lay off workers.
Unfortunately, a good employer-funded insurance plan today is no guarantee of anything at all tomorrow.
Adoption of a single-payer system by an individual state is complicated and requires obtaining waivers for combining federal funds; but it is entirely possible.
That is why it is important for legislative committee chairs Sen. Doug Racine and Rep. Steve Maier to hold serious public hearings on bills S.88 and H.100, which would commit Vermont to establishing a single-payer system, and to allow ample time for testimony from experts like Vermonters Cornelius ("Con") Hogan and Dr. Deborah Richter to describe in detail how it can be done.
Sen. Peter Shumlin has invited Prof. William Hsiao, the health care economist who designed Taiwan’s highly successful single-payer system, to testify at the Statehouse this month; he will also have valuable practical advice, to which we would do well to listen.
We have never claimed to be "experts" or "sages" or "the universe’s foremost authorities" — as Mr. Colin puts it — on anything.
But we have read and heard enough about health care in the United States and in other countries to persuade us that an "everybody in, nobody out" system designed to guarantee universal health care access and not to enrich private insurers is the best plan for Vermonters and all Americans.
We are proud citizens of a state where concerned individuals and a responsive Legislature can make great progress working together for the common good; we hope Vermont will soon be leading the way in health care.
MICHAEL and JUDY OLINICK
Middlebury