Editorials

Rutland Herald A publicly financed universal health care system (single-payer) removes health insurers as the middleman, reduces administrative complexity and paperwork costs and by removing barriers to health care gets us to the doctor earlier, when our conditions are less serious. Although Gov. Peter Shumlin pressed the pause button on single payer in 2014, it […]

Rutland Herald This is a letter that I wrote to the Green Mountain Care Board as a follow-up to testimony that I gave at the public hearing on July 29 in Montpelier concerning a request by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont for yet another rate increase. Green Mountain Care Board: As I said […]

Bennington Banner By Bennington Banner As the nation marks the 50th anniversary of Medicare the discussion of expanding the program and offering universal health care is resurfacing.It’s not a new debate. Fifty years before Medicare’s enactment, progressives had fought unsuccessfully for universal, government-provided health insurance, wrote Nancy Altman, founding co-director of Social Security Works, for […]

Burlington Free Press Last week the U.S. Supreme Court upheld subsidies for buying private health insurance in states with federally-run marketplaces or exchanges. The court’s decision has been an enormous relief for the millions of people who stood to lose access to coverage had the subsidies been revoked, and is seen as a vindication of […]

Brattleboro Reformer Last week’s Supreme Court decision upholding a provision in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) allowing states using the federal exchanges for health insurance to continue receiving subsidies seems like a major victory on the surface. The real story is much more complicated. It is a good thing that about 16 million Americans will […]

Brattleboro Reformer Last week’s Supreme Court decision upholding a provision in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) allowing states using the federal exchanges for health insurance to continue receiving subsidies seems like a major victory on the surface. The real story is much more complicated. It is a good thing that about 16 million Americans will […]

VT Digger Editor’s note: This commentary is by Dr. Anna Carey, who lives in Burlington and works at a family practice in Cambridge. UVM’s presentation to the Green Mountain Care Board of its “Inpatient Bed Replacement Project” has four objectives. Quality: To meet the first objective, the University of Vermont Medical School intends to build […]

Although this OpEd is not about Vermont, it is a good illustration of how a single payer system allows providers to focus on taking care of patients rather than doing battle with insurance companies: The Record: I’m a U.S. family physician who has decided to relocate to Canada. The hassles of working in the dysfunctional […]

Health insurance system is all about profit : Times Argus Online $587,206. That’s what Blue Cross Blue Shield CEO Don George made last year — before his bonus. That makes Don George one of the highest paid executives in the state of Vermont and puts him at the top of the state’s 1 percent. BCBS’ […]

A Vermont Journal: Doctor Deb’s New Prescription March 25, 2015 by Hamilton E. Davis One of the most important principles underpinning health care reform in Vermont is the proposition that health care financing should be separated from employment. If you lose your job, or if your employer doesn’t pay for health insurance, that shouldn’t leave […]