Editorials

Vermont Digger: Editor’s note: This commentary is by Falko Schilling, who is a consumer protection advocate with the Vermont Public Interest Research Group. Recently we’ve seen all sorts of conspiracy theories about why Gov. Shumlin decided to shelve his top legislative priority – the universal health care plan. As one who worked closely with citizens, […]

Rutland Herald: As someone who for the past 25 years has owned, advised or worked closely with a Vermont business, I know firsthand how confusing our health care system is for employers. But here’s the most confusing aspect of all: Over the past three years, hospital budget growth has been kept at 3 percent, the lowest […]

St.Albans Messenger: As someone who for the past 25 years has owned, advised or worked closely with a Vermont business, I know firsthand how confusing our health care system is for employers. But here’s the most confusing aspect of all: Over the past three years, hospital budget growth has been kept at 3 percent, the lowest […]

Times Argus: The decision to not move forward with a public financing system for health care in Vermont was an incredibly difficult one, and it was not taken lightly. The charge that we essentially cooked the books for political purposes is both absurd and insulting. There are many difficult trade-offs in designing a new health care […]

Rutland Herald: Gov. Peter Shumlin’s decision to suspend moving forward on the financing package for single payer in the coming legislative session does not mean that the dream of health care as a public good in Vermont is dead. At his press conference announcing his decision not to pursue single-payer financing in 2015, the governor stated […]

Addison County Independent: Gov. Shumlin announced last Wednesday that “it is not the right time” to introduce a single-payer health care system in Vermont. He said he would not propose such a plan to the Legislature in 2015. A version of a financing plan for single-payer that was leaked to the press earlier this month […]

Vermont Digger: Editor’s note: This commentary is by Terry Doran, who is co-author (with Con Hogan and Deb Richter) of “At the Crossroads: The Future of Health Care in Vermont” and “Gridlock: The Unhealthy Politics of Health Care in Vermont.” He lives in Montpelier. It’s no surprise that Gov. Shumlin decided against presenting a financing […]

Rutland Herald: Last week, I made one of the most difficult decisions of my public life when I announced that I cannot support a move to a publicly financed health care system in Vermont at this time. I have advocated for such a system for much of my public life, but over the past two weeks, […]

Rutland Herald: The governor shocked the political world this past Wednesday by announcing his administration is no longer supporting a tax package to publicly finance health care. The plan had been to eliminate insurance companies and the roughly $3 billion we Vermonters pay them each year in the form of deductibles, premiums, co-pays, etc., with an […]

Rutland Herald: I moved to Vermont more than 15 years ago to practice medicine and to engage in an educational, and ultimately political effort to achieve universal, publicly funded health care in one small state. The prospect of such reform happening at the federal level had always seemed very dim. The prospect just got dimmer in […]