By: Chuck Gregory, Springfield
Apparently Marty Post (“Disaster looms in health care,” Feb. 13) thinks he can win a debate if he walks in, hurls a plate of spaghetti carbonara against the wall and shouts, “There.”
He would have done better to substitute facts for pasta. 1) We are already started with Obamacare; it’s not a particularly good system, but we have to, it’s the law. He doesn’t know this. 2) Our legislators are looking very closely at how to fund it, but he claims otherwise. 3) It’s not the $5.9 billion he claims it will cost Vermont (and he knows this), but he insists it is. 4) In a state where the 2012 income reported for all in-state households was $16.4 trillion — yes, trillion — even $6 billion is only three-hundredths of a percent, or $19.75 per year for a household earning $54,000, hardly a sum causing “bankruptcy.” 5) Since some two-thirds of Vermonters either moved here or were born to parents who did, his reference to out-of-state agency carries little weight.
It is clear that he has not looked at the other side of the issue — the people who could not get insurance because they had pre-existing conditions; the ones who did have it, but became too sick to work and then lost what coverage they had because they couldn’t pay for it; the businesses which lose their best employees to companies that offer health coverage; the attraction Vermont will have for entrepreneurs who need health insurance as the final piece in their strategic plan; and the peace of mind for parents who know that no matter how hard times get, they can count on medical care for their children. Universal coverage is affordable, practical, long overdue.