Letters

St. Albans Messenger The editorial, “Vermont’s not so funny rendition of Looney Tunes,” (9/26) ought to have been titled, “We’re not the capable Americans of 1965.” That was the year Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare into law and gave the government and America’s hospitals one year to create a single-payer system to cover 19 million elderly […]

Valley News To the Editor: I would like to thank the Valley News for the article “Shumlin Talks Health, Education Reform (Oct. 4)”. It was refreshing to read the governor’s commitment to “a more fair way of paying for health care where everybody has health care as a right, not a privilege.” I fully concur […]

Rutland Herald In 2011, Vermont passed Act 48, setting us on the course to have the first universal, publicly financed health care system in the United States. This came about because hundreds of Vermont residents took action: contacting legislators, packing public hearings, testifying about the debilitating effects of the current health care system on their […]

Caledonian Recod McClaughry is always interesting to read. He researches his topics well, and always presents an interesting view of history. His latest thesis on Health Care Mutual Aid, (September 30, 2014), was one of many ways he tries to discredit the health care for all movement and, in particular, the Accountable Care Act, or […]

St. Alban’s Messenger Emerson Lynn’s editorial “Vermont’s not so funny rendition of Looney Tunes, (St Albans Messenger 09/26/14), missed several key points about why Vermont’s progress toward single-payer is not so looney after all. Mr. Lynn said Vermonters must reach into their pockets “over $2 billion each year to pay for this untried system.” As […]

Caledonian Record Vermont Health Connect (VHC) made headlines when the state announced that it was taking down the web portal until further notice. While the policy reasons for taking this action were sound, this certainly was unwelcome news. Opponents of health care reform have used this decision to renew their call for Vermont to drop […]

Randolph Herald The letter “Single Payer Hurts Quality” (09/18/14) has some explaining to do.If “Economics 101 teaches that price controls always lead to scarcity and loss of quality,” as the writer suggests, then why do nations with global budgets and single-payer systems consistently turn in better quality care than we do? What does Economics 101 […]

The Herald of Randoloph As is typical of most of the comment about Vermont Health Connect and single payer, your editorial omits one fact: that citizens lack health insurance. Your editorial states that the reason the governor is pushing single payer is to control costs that crush small business. If that statement is even true […]

Rutland Herald A recent letter (“Single payer avoids problems,” Sept. 17) comes to the correct conclusion that single payer is the only way to guarantee health care for all in a cost-effective system. However, the letter seems to hold Sen. Bernie Sanders responsible for the passage of the Affordable Care Act instead of a national […]

VTDigger Editor’s note: This commentary is by Chuck Gregory, who is a member of the Springfield Town Democratic Committee, a volunteer with the Vermont Workers’ Center, and Valley Court Diversion. Hindsight is always 20-20, but Republican Randy Brock’s recent VTDigger pieces — “Out of the Frying Pan,” (Aug. 6), an attempt to tarnish the reputation […]