I was dismayed, but not surprised, that Seven Days included only one dismissive sentence about Vermont’s universal health care law in the recent article about the health care crisis [“Urgent Scare,” November 6]. Plans to implement Act 48 did not “implode in 2014” because former governor Peter Shumlin “learned how much it would cost and abandoned the effort.” Rather, Shumlin made a political decision to protect large businesses and wealthy residents.
Shumlin’s 2014 financing plan would have raised net incomes for 93 percent of Vermont families, but it relied on a regressive, flat payroll tax that would have placed undue burden on small businesses and workers.
In contrast, the Vermont Workers’ Center and its partners proposed a financing plan for Act 48 that would pay for universal health care through equitable, progressive income, wealth and payroll taxes. We could cover 94 percent of medical costs for Vermonters, raise net incomes for the majority of families, and avoid an outsize impact on small businesses and working-class families.
Thirteen years after the passage of Act 48, health care costs continue to skyrocket while proposed solutions such as closing community health centers and hospitals threaten to exacerbate the lack of access to care. We need leaders with the political will to solve the health care crisis by implementing Vermont’s universal health care law.
Amanda Spector
Westford