By DANIEL BARLOW
Vermont Press Bureau
MONTPELIER – Vermont is looking to pay someone up to $300,000 to fully design three new health care models for the state.
State officials sent out a request for proposals this month for the project, which is part of S.88, a new health care reform effort passed by the Legislature and championed by Sen. Doug Racine, D-Chittenden, one of five Democrats running for governor.
Two of the new health care models will be a single-payer system and a public health insurance option; the third option is yet to be decided. Bids will be accepted until June 21.
"The legislation specifies that the consultant must have ‘demonstrated expertise in designing health care systems that have expanded coverage and contained costs,’" the proposal reads. "The proposals will be evaluated for their responsiveness to the scope of the work and to other specifications in this RFP."
Rep. Steve Maier, D-Middlebury, the chairman of the House Health Care Committee, said lawmakers will review the proposals during the Health Care Reform Commission’s meeting on Monday, June 28.
The next day members of the commission (Maier is co-chair of the committee with Sen. Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia/Orange) will appear before Joint Fiscal Committee at the Statehouse to award the contract.
"We’re expecting our main focus that day will be reviewing and awarding the contract," Maier said about the Health Care Reform Commission meeting on June 28. "The consultant should get started right away in order to have the proposals ready for us in early January."
Racine, one of the five Democrats running in the primary this year, spearheaded the effort to get S.88 passed in the Legislature this year. He said the goal of the bill was to move beyond the debates over what type of system Vermont should have and began to look at how different systems would work.
"The idea is that come late January or early February, we’ll have three draft proposals in front of us," Racine explained. "I see this as having three pieces of draft legislation. It will be a great starting point."
Racine said he’s not sure how many proposals have come into the state, but said that he heard from Jim Hester, the director of the Health Care Reform Commission, that there is strong interest.
Earlier this year, Dr. William Hsiao, a professor of economics at the Harvard School of Public Health who designed Taiwan’s health care model for that country several years ago, testified before lawmakers on how Vermont can make sweeping changes.
"Dr. Hsiao clearly is a favorite," Racine said. "But there should be lots of others interested as well. We’ll let the process decide."
Maier said the requirements for the job are spelled out in the RFP and the legislation, but key to picking someone will be their experience in designing health care systems, if they have a team in place to do the work and if they can finish it in time for the deadline.
Daniel.Barlow@timesargus.com