Editorials

The Nation Vermont’s Single-payer Experiment As everyone else wrangled over even the mildest Affordable Care Act reforms, Governor Peter Shumlin and his legislative allies were busy preparing a single-payer system for Vermont. Yes, they worked with federal officials to set up the Vermont Health Connect exchange as part of the ACA. But they also allocated […]

Burlington Free Press When did the people’s need for universal health care get hijacked by the money-making interests of big insurers, big business and big hospitals? Was it when federal health reformers bowed to the health industry by setting up a marketplace that is about to channel significant public subsidies to private insurance companies? Or […]

PNHP Blog [Note: This column from the blog of Physicians for a National Health Program is about national single payer and not merely Vermont.  But, it illustrates quite succinctly the administrative simplicity of the single payer concept, so we are also posting it here]. By Harvey Fernbach, M.D. I just enrolled in Medicare. It took […]

VTDigger Editor’s note: This commentary is by Lee Russ, a member of the Vermont Workers’ Center. He is a semi-retired legal writer and editor, who was the lead author of “Couch on Insurance.” Canada, O Canada, how some Americans love to disparage you — especially your health care system. In an editorial titled “Decoding the […]

The Guardian By Bernie Sanders Obamacare’s reforms are a welcome but small step. To give all Americans healthcare as a right, we need a fair, efficient solution. I start my approach to healthcare from two very basic premises. First, healthcare must be recognized as a right, not a privilege. Every man, woman and child in […]

Note: This op-ed is not focused on Vermont, but we are posting it here because it is relevant to Vermont.  It focuses on the way business people in Canada find a single payer system much more business friendly than the private insurance system in the United States. The Washington PostBy Matt Miller When you’re being […]

The Hill By Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) Americans spend about twice as much per capita on healthcare as almost any other developed nation, but our outcomes are not as good as others that spend much less. We can do better. We must do better. Today, some 50 million Americans lack health insurance. Many others delay […]

Valley News Which is less surprising — that Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin identified the payroll tax as a major source of revenue for the single-payer health care system his administration is designing or that the Vermont Chamber of Commerce immediately expressed its disapproval? Shumlin’s acknowledgment, which came recently in interviews with the news media, qualifies […]

VPR By Hamilton E. Davis When someone writes the history of health care reform in Vermont, he or she would do well to look closely at the Green Mountain Care Board hearing last week on Fletcher Allen Health Care’s proposed fiscal 2014 budget. There are 14 hospitals in Vermont and they and the doctors that […]

Huffington Post By Wendell Potter [Note: Although this opinion piece appeared in a national publication, it is focused on Vermont and that is why we are posting it on our website. Click here for related Vermont news story]. When you’re shopping for health insurance, wouldn’t it be great if you could find out every insurer’s […]