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 the system, and sick people, deprived of services, will just get sicker.
No part of the system is healthy. Hospitals and community health centers are facing closures, layoffs and service cutbacks. Patients face increasing costs and scarcer services. Health care workers will be asked to do more with less. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont is in trouble. The failing system is spawning serious ripple effects. Health care premium increases contribute to ballooning school budgets and property taxes.
We need leadership, not more finger-pointing. Gov. Phil Scott’s administration has no plan. The University of Vermont Medical Center management, threatening major service cuts, appears to be in the “see what you made me do” stage of responding to calls for cost control. Rural hospitals and community health centers face pressure to “restructure” or close.
The ideas of the Green Mountain Care Board, UVM Medical Center management, legislative leadership and the governor’s administration offer no comprehensive solutions.
This is why I’m a member of the Vermont Workers’ Center, organizers of the Healthcare Is a Human Right campaign. Thirteen years ago, we won passage of a law to create a publicly financed universal health care system for all Vermont residents that would have avoided this mess. Our voices deserve center stage in any discussion of how we finally solve this mess.
Scott Earisman
Colchester