Editorials

Editorial, Rutland Herald The Shumlin administration is energetically selling its health care plan even before it has drawn up its details, which often means fielding questions from the public that still have no answers. Gov. Peter Shumlin and others were in Rutland this week for a forum to talk about the health care reforms that […]

Truthout Op-EdBy Jim Hightower We have a problem, said House Speaker Shap Smith of Vermont. We need to solve it. This comment reflects a no-nonsense, hands-on, can-do attitude you rarely find in legislative bodies these days. Instead, when most so-called leaders are confronted with a problem, they tend to say, We need to cover it […]

Burlington Free Press Written by Ellen Oxfeld Gov. Peter Shumlin signed the new health care bill into law Thursday. Many people may wonder how we came to this point. Why is it that Vermont is the first state to pass legislation that acknowledges that health care is a public good, and that the best route […]

Rutland Herald By John L. Franco Jr. In a recent opinion piece, Republican Rutland City Treasurer Wendy Wilton critiqued the analysis of potential single-payer costs and savings developed for the Vermont Legislature by Harvard economist William Hsiao. Ms. Wilton purports to “prove” that a single-payer program in Vermont will be doomed from the start. Her […]

Vermont is a land of proud firsts. This small, New England state was the first to join the 13 Colonies. Its constitution was the first to ban slavery. It was the first to establish the right to free education for all — public education. Today, Vermont will boast another first: the first state in the […]

I am a medical doctor, semi-retired living in Vermont and having a limited practice. Prior to moving to Vermont two and a half years ago I practiced full time, dividing my practice between the Detroit area in Michigan and Windsor, Ontario, an hour drive from Detroit. Thus I have a substantial personal knowledge of medical […]

VTDigger By Michelle O’Donnell Last July, I packed into a room in Montpelier City Hall for the Green Mountain Care Board hearing, where they would decide whether to approve a requested rate increase from Blue Cross Blue Shield and MVP. After listening to hours of moving testimony of people directly affected by high health insurance […]

Public Comment Green Mountain Care Board Julie Wasserman, MPH Health PolicyiAdvocacy i TO: Green Mountain Care Board RE: Comments on the GMCB/UVMHN/UVMMC “Settlement” Proposal FROM: Julie Wasserman, MPH DATE: March 28, 2025 ___________________________________________________________________________ Summary: UVMHN, UVMMC, and GMCB have drawn up a Proposal, in part, to avoid continued litigation over UVMMC’s FY23 Budget Overage of […]

Time Argus Just when you thought the all-payer model and ACO could not get any stranger, there is a new and shocking development. Recently, the Green Mountain Care Board released the 2020 financial and quality care results for OneCare Vermont. The results show OneCare “saved” almost $8 million in Medicare spending and over $15 million […]