High Deductible Plans Lead to Increase in Bad Debt, Hospital Says

VTDigger By Morgan True The state’s second-largest hospital says high deductibles and out-of-pocket costs for some health insurance plans sold through Vermont Health Connect are contributing to its rising bad debt. Rutland Regional Medical Center is projecting that its uncollectible accounts will grow by $729,151 this year over last, an increase of close to 10 […]

Read more

Vermont set to become trailblazer for single-payer health care

St. Louis Post-Dispatch BERLIN, Vt. • Dr. Marvin Malek has been yearning and advocating for a publicly financed, single-payer health care system for at least two decades. Now, as Vermont stands on the threshold of being the first state to launch such a plan, he’s confessing to trepidation. “I am pretty damn nervous,” he confided […]

Read more

Lawmakers got sneak preview of single payer financing plans

VTDigger Is it legal for the Shumlin administration to keep financing plans for the single payer health care system a secret? Even when those plans have been shared with House legislative leadership? Those are the questions at the heart of a lawsuit brought by Rep. Cynthia Browning, D-Arlington, against the state of Vermont. Gov. Peter […]

Read more

State, CGI agree to part ways in September

VTDigger After months of pressuring CGI to repair the state’s dysfunctional health care exchange website, the state of Vermont is finally cutting ties with the IT firm. Lawrence Miller, chief of health care reform, announced Monday that the state has reached an exit agreement with the Canadian technology company and the remaining Web development work […]

Read more

Group endorses single-payer supporters

Burlington Free Press With the primary election fast approaching on Aug. 26, and early voting already underway, political advocacy groups are becoming active. One organization that supports government-financed health care recently weighed in on four House races and one Senate race. Vermont Leads wants to help voters differentiate among the Democrats based on who is […]

Read more

Coming to America, very quietly: A plan for universal health care

The Canadian Press BURLINGTON, Vt. – An American state has quietly taken another step toward the type of universal health coverage Canadians might recognize, even as the rest of the United States bickers noisily over so-called Obamacare. Two court challenges to President Barack Obama’s signature health-care reform got all the attention this week while, beneath […]

Read more

Obamacare Architect To Help Vermont Design Single Payer

VPR An economist who helped the Obama administration design the Affordable Care Act is coming to Vermont to help Gov. Peter Shumlin develop a proposal for single-payer health care. And his work will help decide which taxes Shumlin will propose using to raise the $2 billion needed to support the new system. Jonathan Gruber is […]

Read more

Sterrett’s goal: Get VT to single-payer finish line

Burlington Free Press The man holding the chart Thursday for Dean Corren, Progressive candidate for lieutenant governor, was working a year ago as health care counsel for Public Citizen, a nonprofit based in Washington D.C. with a mission to promote the interests of the public with Congress and government agencies. At Corren’s news event, David […]

Read more

Legislature To Conduct Independent Analysis of Health Care Costs

VPR As Vermont heads down the path toward a single-payer health care system, lawmakers want to make sure the options are affordable for taxpayers and consumers. And the economic analysis about to be launched by the Legislature may duplicate similar work being performed for the Shumlin Administration. Gov. Peter Shumlin wants to institute the nation’s […]

Read more