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Times Argus MONTPELIER — As Democratic lawmakers struggle to help constituents navigate the troubled waters of the new insurance exchange, Gov. Peter Shumlin said Saturday their difficulties are all the more reason for legislators to keep their eyes on the single-payer prize. “If ever there is an example in this nation … for why we […]

Times Argus By Peter HirschfeldVermont Press BureauMONTPELIER — The balance of power in the House Committee on Health Care will shift in favor of Democrats next year when House Speaker Shap Smith drops a Republican from the 11-person panel and replaces him with a member of the ruling party. Gone from the committee, Smith said […]

Rutland Herald By Peter HirschfeldVermont Press Bureau MONTPELIER — In an attempt to avoid some of the same operational challenges they continue to encounter on the new online insurance exchange, administration officials are asking lawmakers for money to begin preparing now for the next phase of reform: single-payer health care. Robin Lunge, director of health […]

VTDigger Finding a way to pay for a health care system that doesn’t yet exist is a daunting task. And as Vermont marches toward single-payer health care by 2017, that task largely falls to Michael Costa, the state’s deputy director of health care reform. Speaking to an audience of tax and insurance professionals Friday at […]

Times-Argus By Peter Hirschfeld Vermont Press Bureau MONTPELIER — Gov. Peter Shumlin said increases in the payroll tax will “play a major role” in the public financing system he wants to use to fund single-payer health care. The public discussion over single-payer has taken a back seat of late to the health insurance “exchange” set […]

VTDigger Posted By Andrew Stein On August 1, 2013 Prominent Burlington restaurateur Al Gobeille took over as chair of Vermont’s Green Mountain Care Board on Thursday. With his rise to the board’s top seat comes the exit of Anya Rader Wallack — a central architect of the bill that created the board and its first […]

VTDigger   Gov. Peter Shumlin put Vermont on a path to creating the nation’s first single payer health care system when he signed Act 48 in 2011. But since then, his administration has made little progress up that mountain, drawing questions and accusations from the far political left and right about the governor’s sincerity. Now, […]

Rutland Herald   By Brent CurtisSTAFF WRITERFederal budget cuts have hit hospitals across the state, provoking a new assessment of medical spending and putting dozens of jobs on the line in an effort to preserve care while restraining costs. Days after Rutland Regional Medical Center president Thomas Huebner said the hospital was eliminating 100 full-time-equivalent […]

NOTE: This is not an article on Vermont, as it is about hospital costs trends nationally, but it is relevant to Vermont as well, since hospital costs in Vermont, as elsewhere, are a large part of total health care costs. By Ron ShinkmanFierce Health Finance Although hospitals are cutting jobs and compensation, pay for their […]

Seven Days By Kathryn Flagg [06.05.13] On the surface, the Vermont Health CO-OP seems like the kind of endeavor the state would embrace with open arms. Using federal funds from so-called “Obamacare,” the South Burlington-based nonprofit wants to offer a member-owned alternative to much-maligned corporate insurance companies. All of its profits would be reinvested to […]