Letters

Burlington Free Press Even though the United States is a signatory of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whose anniversary we observed this Dec. 10, it still treats health care as a commodity instead of a human right. Everyone needs health care, regardless of their lifestyle. In particular, everyone needs primary and preventive care, which […]

Burlington Free Press  I am writing to you on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Here in Vermont we still do not yet have the right to health care even though every other industrialized country recognizes healthcare as a human right. Everyone should be entitled to receive the health care […]

Burlington Free Press Senate bill S. 88 clearly states that the commission shall consist of no members with a relationship to health providers or insurers. Jim Leddy as president of AARP Vermont obviously has such a relationship, volunteer or not. Since one of the designs mandated in S. 88 is a single-payer-type health care plan, […]

Rutland Herald Although Jim Leddy, the representative of the AARP members to the national organization, is a principled man, one question not yet answered is “Why appoint him?” AARP is a billion-dollar-a-year business, with $600 million of its revenue generated by merchandising — and AARP gets 10 percent on the premiums it generates through policy […]

Shap Smith’s appointment against the law (RH) Naming Leddy violates law Shap Smith, speaker of the Vermont House of Representatives and a lawyer practicing in Burlington, is not above the law and therefore will need to rescind his appointment of Jim Leddy, president of AARP in Vermont, a health insurer, to the state’s Health Care […]

Need a good health planner (Rutland Herald) Now that S.88 has become law, we will need a good architect to design a health care system for Vermont that is universal and can contain costs. Your editorial of May 23 mentions professor William Hsiao of the Harvard University School of Public Health. Professor Hsiao testified before […]

(Rutland Herald) The Vermont Legislature recently passed S.88, a health care reform bill. Vermont and Massachusetts have led the nation in health care reforms. These reforms have not been perfect, but are steps in the right direction. The 2010 federal health care bill was based in part on the Massachusetts model (signed by Mitt Romney) […]

Rutland Herald We Americans are alone among the citizens of the industrialized nations of the modern world to constrict access to affordable, quality health care for all of our people, denying it to many in fact. The corporations whose enormous profits flow from the present system (or a new one that would guarantee their advantage) […]

What Burton Actually Said (BFP) There he goes again. Burton’s decision to move its manufacturing jobs to Austria led the governor to say that taxes need to be rolled back. But the CEO said nothing about state taxes, which are a very small component of business costs (and of course we have no idea how […]

Published: March 18, 2010 (Rutland Herald) The Rutland Herald has published two letters from Michael and Judy Olinick relating to Vermonters’ access to health care. These letters have been followed each time by an answer by Ralph Colin. I believe the Olinicks’ first letter was a statement offered for readers to consider on the merits […]