Letters

Burlington Free Press The Vermont House took bold and necessary action on March 24 by passing the universal health care bill, H.202. There are many businesses in this state that support reform because they believe the current health care system is unsustainable, inefficient and unfair. Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility is one statewide business association […]

End corporate gamesmanship (RH) Your calm and insightful editorial on the hysterical nature of opposition to the single-payer debate was much appreciated. It’s interesting to note that as the debate unfolds, the supposed ills of single-payer, as put forward by the insurance industry — long delays in treatment, cost, lack of consumer choice — are […]

Rutland Herald I appreciate the paper’s good report on the hearings held on March 14 across the state of Vermont. Each person who testified was limited to two minutes. Most of us spoke from our hearts and our own experience and therefore the timing was not precise. I was not able to finish my testimony […]

Rutland Herald The time is long over due for this great nation to provide all of its citizen with good and accessible health care. As a public psychiatrist practicing in public clinic settings over the last 15 years I have seen how lack of insurance and underinsurance has led to extensive suffering for both individuals […]

Burlington Free Press Since 1993 the League of Women Voters of the US has had an advocacy position calling for a national health insurance plan financed through general taxes. Until that happens, the LWV of Vermont believes a state program can and should provide such health care to the residents of Vermont. Based on a […]

Burlington Free Press In his Feb. 1 My Turn, Joseph P Blanchette’s Fatal conceit is that health and its unfortunate partner, illness, don’t abide by free market principles in a just society. Under free market principles, profit and fortune amass and the nonprofitable goods disappear as competition thrives. In the healthcare field, the goods, however, […]

Burlington Free Press I am excited about Gov. Shumlin’s proposed health care bill, H.202. For too long, our country has embraced a corrupt system that benefits insurance and pharmaceutical companies while leaving people to face insurmountable costs to accessing health care. It is a crime for large corporations to profit off of even a single […]

Burlington Free Press: Comment & Debate Deborah Richter, President, Vermont Health Care for All Praise has been heaped on the 120-some page report issued by the Harvard health economist, William Hsiao, and his working group. Words like historic, ground-breaking, and masterful are used, and since I entirely agree I will put them to use as […]

Boston Globe I APPLAUD The Globe for showcasing Vermont’s single-payer “laboratory’’ in its Jan. 2 editorial “Vermont: Creating a singular health system.’’ As a third-year medical student at Cambridge Health Alliance, I’ve found that it doesn’t take long to see that the current system is insufficient. The shortcomings leave patients whom I follow longitudinally with […]

Burlington Free Press On Dec. 10, I heard Sen. Sanders, during a filibuster in opposition to the Obama-Republican tax bill, read letters he had received from Americans. Each one told a story of hardship and struggle to make ends meet. One person was a part time worker in Stowe who related that his hours had […]