Letters

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 […]

Times Argus I fully disclose I am a member of the GMCB advisory committee and have been since the GMCB’s beginning. I firmly believed, and still believe, in the GMCB and its mission, which has changed since its inception in 2011 under Act 48. The current difficulties Mr. Hildebrandt describes would be far worse in […]

VTDigger Dear Editor, Richard Dalton’s letter, “Gifford Medical Center cannot survive financially” raises some interesting questions about the way we deliver health care in Vermont and, for that matter, the rest of this sad and troubled nation. These go beyond whether Gifford can survive or not. Mr. Dalton summed it up perfectly: “the stark reality […]

VTDigger Dear Editor, I recently read the Oliver Wyman report cover to cover and wonder if the consultants have ever had to drive in a blinding snowstorm for health care services. The idea of gutting North Country Hospital and requiring the residents of Newport and the Northeast Kingdom to drive 45 miles to St. Johnsbury […]

Rutland Herald Various sources have reported the following on recent Green Mountain Care Board decisions. It seems, for the third year in a row, the state’s health care regulator will allow Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont to increase individual premiums by 19.8% and small group premiums by 22.8% over current rates. Meanwhile, Vermont […]