News

Vermont Digger: Knowledgable sources say Rep. Bill Lippert will chair the House Health Care Committee. The Democrat from Hinesburg has served in the House for 20 years. Paul Heintz, a columnist for Seven Days, broke the story. In his role as chair of House Judiciary, Lippert helped to lead the passage of the state’s gay marriage […]

 Brattleboro Reformer: MONTPELIER >’> A survey of business owners released by an advocacy group shows that a majority support mandatory sick days, universal health care and better funding for child care. Forty-nine percent of respondents would support a minimum number of sick days for employees; 58 percent supported a universal health care system, and 60 percent […]

Huffington Post, By Wendell Potter: Two weeks from now, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin will describe how he thinks the country’s first state-based single-payer system will be financed. Whether the Green Mountain State keeps moving forward with its goal of achieving universal coverage while also reducing the growth of health care spending depends largely on how the […]

 Rutland Herald: I am writing this letter to ask my neighbors, in this season of giving, to join us as we stand up to corporate greed, demand dignified, meaningful work and make a case for health care as a human right. My name is Kris White, and I live in Grand Isle. I am a mother, […]

 Bennington Banner: MONTPELIER >> The Office of Health Care Reform today released the second in a series of videos designed to raise awareness about the current health care financing system in Vermont. WATCH VIDEO HERE The video shows how for some Vermonters, monthly health care premium costs can eat up over 10 percent of their yearly […]

 VPR: Some of the state’s largest employers are on edge over the Shumlin administration’s plan to lure them into a single-payer health care system. And business officials worry that new taxes on those companies could drive them out of state. Gov. Peter Shumlin won’t unveil his single-payer financing proposal until the end of the month. But […]

 VT Digger: Alissa Carberry, 24, is an early childhood educator working at a nonprofit in Burlington’s Old North End. She has type 1 diabetes and employer-sponsored health insurance from Vermont Health Connect. Carberry said she has become active with Vermont’s Health Care is a Human Right campaign because she can’t keep up with the cost of […]

 VT Digger: BURLINGTON — Members of Vermont’s Health Care Is a Human Right campaign are calling on Gov. Peter Shumlin to “equitably” finance the state’s planned universal health care program. Advocates say the Shumlin administration’s single payer program should be supported by a progressive tax structure that doesn’t shift costs from large businesses to smaller ones […]

 Times Argus – MONTPELIER — Emails between the state and an economist under fire for impolitic comments he made years ago highlight the administration’s work since the summer preparing a long-awaited financing plan for Gov. Peter Shumlin’s proposed universal, publicly financed health care plan. Shumlin, a second-term Democrat who won a slim plurality last month and […]

Vermont Digger: Gov. Peter Shumlin will not pursue a single payer health care plan this legislative session or in the near future. The governor had pinned his hopes on making Vermont the first state in the nation to implement a single payer system. Three years ago, Shumlin touted Act 48, the framework for single payer as […]