Letters

The Valley Reporter Three recent events, one of them local and closely covered by this publication, are indicative of the parlous state of the American health care system. The local event, of course, is the announced closing of two facilities in The Valley because of a fiscal crisis at the UVM Health Network, with which […]

Seven Days Re “Urgent Scare,” November 6; “UVM Health Network Announces Service Cuts, Blames Regulators,” November 14, online]: Two recent articles by Colin Flanders portray a health care system on the verge of collapse. Premium increases, hospital closures and diminishing access will cause more Vermonters to forgo health care and insurance. Healthy people will leave […]

Seven Days I was dismayed, but not surprised, that Seven Days included only one dismissive sentence about Vermont’s universal health care law in the recent article about the health care crisis [“Urgent Scare,” November 6]. Plans to implement Act 48 did not “implode in 2014” because former governor Peter Shumlin “learned how much it would […]

Seven Days A quick Google search turns up all you need to know about the University of Vermont Medical Center posturing to eliminate services and threatening the Green Mountain Care Board. From ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer, here are just a few key employees of the UVM Medical Center and their compensation amounts for the fiscal year […]

Seven Days Thank you for the November 14 story on the budget reductions by the University of Vermont Health Network [“UVM Health Network Announces Service Cuts, Blames Regulators,” online]. To cover a $122 million shortfall in revenue traceable to a 1 percent rate decrease in what they can charge insurers, UVM Health Network announced service […]

Seven Days [“Urgent Scare: The Price of Health Care Plans in Vermont Has Doubled in Six Years. The Prognosis for Cost Containment Is Grim,” November 6] flatly states that “former governor Peter Shumlin’s yearslong pursuit of a single-payer model imploded in 2014 after he learned how much it would cost and abandoned the effort.” Is […]

The Commons ROCKINGHAM-I am concerned and dismayed over the recent decision by the management of North Star Health to close the Health Center at Bellows Falls. This action seems to prioritize convenience for a select few while leaving the most vulnerable members of our community without access to essential health care services. In doing so, […]

VTDigger Dear Editor, The Green Mountain Care Board is working hard at the near impossible task of reducing Vermont health care costs. Many Vermonters are unable to afford the high cost of health care insurance and are falling into medical debt. Since hospitals are a main driver of insurance premiums, the University of Vermont Health […]

VTDigger I have written before about the way the University of Vermont Health Network spends its money, and now it appears the Green Mountain Care Board that approves its budgets have noticed that they overcharge to make money. UVM Health Network’s response is to cut services to Vermonters. Apparently cutting salaries to its overpaid officers […]

VTDigger Dear Editor, The recent report commissioned by the Green Mountain Care(less?) Board, which would degrade and curtail services provided by our North Country Hospital in Newport, is just one more example of the disrespect heaped on Orleans and northern Essex counties by the state of Vermont. The contempt shown time and again for Vermont’s […]