Letters

 Addison Independent The letter “Vermont must address health insurance conundrum” (Addison Independent, April 11, 2016) was right on. This health insurance conundrum cannot be repeated enough. Our wages can never keep up with the never-ending rise of health care costs, no matter how high we raise the minimum wage. That “Of the roughly 630,000 people […]

 Times Argus Make Primary Care Free The commentary “Make primary care free” (Times Argus, March 27) is on to something. Primary care is the core of our health care. The recent attempts at reform, like the Accountable Care Organizations (ACO), and the all-payer waiver, are revolving around the necessity of primary care. Hard experience taught […]

The Times Argus  The latest Times Argus/Rutland Herald editorial, “Sanders’ Challenge,” once again seems to paint Bernie Sanders as an unrealistic “populist” versus Hillary Clinton, the pragmatic realist. One example is the ACA (Obamacare) which Hillary Clinton wants to improve incrementally while Bernie wants to replace with a “single payer” Medicare-for-all health care plan. Health […]

 The Valley News To the Editor: Having recently helped a friend renew her supplemental health insurance, I was astounded by the amount of complexity the current system involves. First, we spent several hours learning about the overwhelming number of choices available to her from One Exchange, the health care exchange that now handles the health […]

 Rutland HerladPaul Krugman’s “Health reform realities” (Jan. 19) claims that reality limits us to working with Obamacare; a national health care plan like the one Bernie Sanders proposes is unrealistic. But Krugman’s assessment leaves out one extremely important reality and understates a second. He left out the reality that his approach is a surrender to […]

Rutland Herlad  It’s disheartening to see a respected newspaper like the Herald and a celebrated economist like Paul Krugman echo Hillary Clinton’s claim that the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) is a great achievement and the best we can get. If so, why are thousands thronging to hear Bernie Sanders and cheering his assertion that health […]

Rutland Herald How very disappointing that Paul Krugman calls the ongoing fight for guaranteed health care for all Americans a “quixotic attempt” by progressives. Until insurance companies are not lined up at the trough, siphoning off health care dollars in the name of profit, our work is not done, and we will not give up […]

Bennington Banner Obamacare has definitely done some good. The main benefit has been to make health insurance available to many who did not have access before. Also patients with preexisting conditions cannot be denied coverage by the insurance companies. But Obamacare falls short in many ways: • About 25 million of us will be left […]

Rutland Herald The commentary “Primary care for all” describes two bills which propose to build a system of universal primary care in Vermont. These are H.207 and S.88. As I learned the difficult way through a near fatal experience some years ago, access to primary care is vital. Without it, problems can go either undetected […]

Bennington Banner John McClaughry’s column Vermont’s coming all payer ‘reform’ (09/30/2015) raises an awful lot of fears in its roughly 750 words. One thing it does not do is mention that since 1971 Maryland has been operating a version of the all payer system that applies to hospital care. Between 1976 and 2007, Maryland had […]