Letters

By: Trevor Madore, Colchester   While details regarding the transition to a single-payer health care system remain, we cannot forget the benefits of these changes. The Vermont Republican State Committee resolved that Vermont’s health care exchange should be optional and provide more insurance options. While the traditional arguments of market-based health care are present, the abuse […]

By: Walter Carpenter, MontpelierRob Roper’s commentary “The single-payer cost nobody talks about” (Jan. 30) suggests that the universal, publicly-funded health care system Vermont is moving toward will need scores of supplements to work, adding millions more in costs from the need for wrap-around policies. This is not true.   Mr. Roper cites Medicare as an example […]

By: Ann Raynolds, Psy.D., Pomfret Gov. Peter Shumlin has been steadfast in his commitment to designing a universal health care system in our state, and he has huge support from Vermont providers and consumers. Michael Costa is the financial guru hired who, with a top flight team of experts in Montpelier, is designing several scenarios […]

By: Ellen Oxfeld, Middlebury In his guest editorial, “Single-payer questions” (Jan. 23), Emerson Lynn questions the feasibility of a single-payer system in Vermont. Several of his concerns must be addressed.Dr. Bauman Lynn points out that studies have estimated Vermont would have to raise between $1.6 billion and $2 billion in taxes to fund a single-payer system. […]

By: Chuck Gregory, Springfield  Clearly editorials cannot report the news upon which they are based in full, so your board (“GOP takes stand against single-payer plan,” Feb. 2) had to exclude all the whereases that preceded the resolution the party passed. However, I was given what is purported to be a copy of the full […]

By: Walter Carpenter, Montpelier I would like to respond to the letter “Many questions on single payer” by Ms. Kerry O’Hara in the Jan. 24 edition of the Rutland Herald. There are some things in her letter which are not exactly as benign or rosy as Ms. O’Hara depicts. I wanted to clarify at least one […]

By: Walter Carpenter, Montpelier Mr. Gary Murdock in his My Turn piece, “Republican, sit back and gloat,” (Jan. 8) says the Republicans, who have done absolutely nothing for health care reform, should sit back and gloat over their failure to do anything. He called the Affordable Care Act (ACA) the “greatest wealth transfer schemes the left […]

By: David Schoales, Brattleboro Is a software screw-up in the health exchanges really so important we have to hear about it over and over for weeks? Is it just because it’s a government screw-up? How come we never hear about it when the visiting nurses are late or miss an appointment to care for Grampa, so […]

By: Jason Kelley, West Hartford In response to Kelly O’Hara’s letter (Jan. 24) commenting on the Herald editorial about recent developments in Vermont’s health care reform (“Getting Ready,” Jan. 21), it’s hard to know how she gained her unbridled admiration for health insurance companies. Health care costs in Vermont exceed the national average; we have the […]