Emerson Lynn is correct when he states that potential cuts to Medicaid will be a disaster for our hospital system that is already in crisis (see 6-20-25 editorial). It’s true that our legislature has recently passed a bill that attempts to rein in hospital prices by pegging them to Medicare rates and has also attempted to stop the most outrageous overpricing of outpatient drugs.
But these measures alone will not save our health care system or our hospitals. Indeed, Copley Hospital recently decided to close its birthing center to save money. This was despite public opposition to the move. It’s bad for health outcomes and won’t save money for the overall system either. In the future, a person with a birth emergency might need to travel almost an hour to get the care they need. And average births at Copley are $10,000 less than at University of Vermont Medical Center.
So, what is a better approach to affordable and accessible health care for all Vermonters? Ironically, even the lobbyists for our hospitals has admitted that we have a “very flawed way of paying for health care.”
She is correct. Most countries pay for hospital care as a universal public good. They pool publicly raised funds and finance their hospitals with global operating budgets that take account of local needs and levels of care required in each facility. Such systems have better control over hospital costs and more effective public oversight than we do. Hospital care is also accessible to all in such a system.
Yet this legislative session, a bill (H.267) that would have created a publicly financed hospital system languished in House Health. No testimony was taken. The same is true of bills that would have created universal primary care (H.433 and H.185). We also know that universal primary care is essential for overall population health and can also help contain costs because people get care earlier and before their conditions are more expensive and difficult to treat.
So, can our relevant House committees take testimony on these bills next session? We can keep trying to put out forest fires, or we can start the work of systemic reform. Let’s prevent the fires from ever starting.
Ellen Oxfeld