Letters

Addison Independent To the Editor: I appreciate the Addison Independent’s coverage of healthcare bills ready for consideration by our state legislators. As our federal government destroys healthcare safety nets, we can start addressing the problem here in Vermont. The cost of health insurance is astronomical. Too many people are unable to access care until something catastrophic […]

Seven Days [Re “Manage Your Care: To Lower Health Costs, Vermont’s Largest Insurance Company Is Urging Patients to Shop Around,” January 14]: The Blue Cross Blue Shield ad campaign urging patients to “shop around” and avoid the University of Vermont Medical Center when possible is a textbook example of late-stage capitalism: one powerful institution accusing […]

Rutland Herald Yes, those of us who have been trying to push for universal/single payer health care funding for every Vermonter, are quite aware that education staff, teachers, maintenance staff and all education employees’ insurance costs to cover health care, are the single most costly part of education funding. There is a very simple solution […]

Bennington Banner To the Editor: Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) of Vermont now says Vermonters have a “personal responsibility” to become “savvier consumers” in light of Vermont’s “health care affordability crisis.” How odd. We have several institutions that comprise and control healthcare—the hospitals, the insurance companies, the regulators, the legislators—but BCBS thinks each of the […]

Addison Independent Sarah’s headaches had been getting worse and more frequent. But as a single mom with two teenagers, she just didn’t have the extra cash to see a doctor. Her deductible was $4,000, almost 10% of her annual income.When her daughter finally drove her to the emergency room, the cancer from her brain tumor had […]

Addison Independent I’m writing as a retired educator who remains concerned about the future of preK-12 education in Vermont. Our governor made a commitment to lower education costs, determined not to kick the can down the road any further. However, the can he’s neglected to stop kicking is the cost of health care, which is the […]

Seven Days It is excruciating to read article after article about cherished, essential Vermont institutions — public schools, birth centers, Seven Days, you name it — closing, shrinking or forcing costs onto their employees due to the skyrocketing price of health insurance [From the Publisher: “What I Should Have Said,” December 3]. And it’s about […]

Time Argus As President Trump has now decided he will solve the health care problem by giving every citizen an amount of money to spend on health care as they choose, perhaps we need to remind him there already are bills in Congress to get rid of the insurance companies by forming a single payer, universal […]

The Valley Reporter To The Editor: I thank the editor of The Valley Reporter for the editorial in the November 6 edition, “It’s the health care, stupid.” This little modification of that catchphrase from James Carville, former President Bill Clinton’s political strategist in Clinton’s 1992 campaign, says it all. At long last, someone else other than activists […]

Addison Independent  By Jack Mayer With regard to the ongoing crisis in education and conflict regarding consolidation, I’d like to offer an alternative solution to the funding challenges. Approximately 15% of school budgets are for health benefits and insurance. What if we had a single payer health care system that would be financed by progressive […]