Editorials

Brattleboro Reformer By Kelly Cummings With lightning speed. That’s how quickly S.39 — An Act relating to compensation and benefits for members of the Vermont General Assembly, including health insurance — passed in the Senate. It didn’t hang on the wall or get sent to another committee to die. There were no hearings or studies […]

VTDigger This commentary is by Allen Gilbert, a former journalist, teacher, and ACLU-VT executive director. He lives in Worcester and is the author of “Equal Is Equal, Fair Is Fair,” a book on equity issues in Vermont. He is a board member of Vermont Health Care for All. Legislators need to continue on a course […]

VTDigger This commentary is by Marvin Malek, M.D. and MPH, an internist who lives in Berlin. Anyone who tunes into commercial television will find it impossible to avoid the deluge of TV ads promoting Medicare Advantage plans. The advertising is funded by the lavish profits these companies are raking in. Joe Namath, the great New […]

Vermont Political Observer Now that Crossover Day has come and gone, it’s now official: State lawmakers will consider giving themselves health care coverage but won’t consider the same for all the rest of us. On the Senate side, S.39 has emerged from the Government Operations Committee. It would significantly increase lawmakers’ pay from its current […]

VTDigger This commentary is by Ethan Parke of Montpelier, a former member of the Vermont Health Policy Council, a co-founder of Vermont Consumers’ Campaign for Health, and a current board member of Vermont Health Care for All.  The Senate Government Operations Committee has taken up S.39, which would “make members of the General Assembly eligible […]

Bennington Banner The Vermont Senate is discussing a bill S.39 that would make state legislators eligible for the state employees’ benefit plan at no cost to them. It would also provide legislators with child care reimbursement and pay for out-of-session work that is not currently compensated. The bill’s goal is to make serving in the […]

VTDigger This commentary is by John Greenberg, a resident of Marlboro. I’m struggling to understand Anya Rader-Wallack’s commentary about OneCare. Ms. Wallack states that the purpose of OneCare is to replace fee-for-service medicine, which, she argues “is, in large part, responsible for the unsustainable growth in health care costs in the U.S.” But is it? […]

Brattleboro Reformer Ms. (Dr.?) Wallack states that the purpose of OneCare is to replace fee-for-service medicine, which she argues “is, in large part, responsible for the unsustainable growth in health care costs in the U.S.” But is it? If so, then why is Canadian medicine so much cheaper than ours, when it too relies on […]

VTDigger This commentary is by Dr. Deborah Richter, M.D., a practicing family physician in Cambridge, Vt. She lives in Montpelier. Legislative leaders have already laid out their agenda for this session. Despite the dire state of health care for the almost half of Vermonters under age 65 who are “underinsured,” it is clear that they […]

The Vermont Political Observer By John Walters If there was an organizational chart outlining America’s process for supplying and paying for health care, it would look something like this. It’s not a “system” as much as a mare’s nest that grows more and more complicated — and less efficient and increasingly unjust — over time. […]