News

By DANIEL BARLOW Vermont Press Bureau MONTPELIER – Vermont is looking to pay someone up to $300,000 to fully design three new health care models for the state. State officials sent out a request for proposals this month for the project, which is part of S.88, a new health care reform effort passed by the […]

By Louis Porter Vermont Press Bureau – Published: June 6, 2010 MONTPELIER – The state’s landmark Catamount health insurance program is not terminally ill, but it needs a checkup. A smaller-than-expected infusion of federal money and other factors mean the nearly four-year-old program needs help – about $3.8 million – from the state’s General Fund […]

By DANIEL BARLOW Vermont Press Bureau MONTPELIER – House lawmakers, for the second time this year, easily approved a major health care reform bill Thursday including a provision to track free drug samples given to doctors, setting up a showdown with the Senate. The two-hour floor debate Thursday focused little on the requirement that drug […]

By DANIEL BARLOW Vermont Press BureauMONTPELIER – The political battle over a plan to track the free pharmaceutical samples given to Vermont physicians by drug companies is far from over. House Health Care Committee lawmakers said Wednesday that they would fight to include a provision requiring the drug companies to report to the Vermont Attorney […]

By DANIEL BARLOW Vermont Press Bureau MONTPELIER – The Vermont Senate easily passed a major health care reform bill Tuesday night, but first lawmakers jettisoned a provision that would have allowed the state to track free drug samples given to doctors. The health care bill, S.88, passed with strong support in a voice vote shortly […]

By Thatcher Moats STAFF WRITER, Times Argus MONTPELIER – Singing, music, dancing and theater kept a health care rally in Montpelier festive Saturday, but the hundreds of people who took part were trying to hammer home a message they couldn’t take more seriously. We believe that health care is a human right for all people […]

FireDogLake Once again, the states are leading the way on health care reform. This past week, the Vermont House and Senate passed two versions of a bill that would essentially get a consultant to design three systems for health care in Vermont: something similar to Canadian single payer, something similar to a private system with […]

Burlington Free Press I agree with the gist of your editorial Health care study bill is logical step forward (April 11) that supporting a study of different options is a small but rational step forward to achieving universal access to health care in Vermont in a fiscally responsible way. However, the editorial needs to take […]

By DANIEL BARLOW Vermont Press Bureau MONTPELIER – Rep. Tom Koch, a supporter of a free-market health care system, had an unlikely ally when he urged House lawmakers to vote against an omnibus health care reform bill Thursday afternoon. In arguing against a bill that would cap hospital budgets, expand the Blueprint for Health program […]

By Nancy Remsen, Free Press Staff Writer, BFP MONTPELIER — Dr. Deb Richter is accustomed to the slow pace of progress toward the health reform she favors, but she comes back to the Statehouse again and again to push for change. She was on hand Wednesday when senators took another small step. The Senate voted […]