Letters to the Editor
Cutting Out the Middleman
February 20, 2012
Rutland HeraldThe organization “Vermonters for Health Care Freedom” is running a web ad in which a woman complains that Gov. Shumlin wants to “uproot” our current health care “system” and spend $5 billion for a single-payer system. She implies that the governor is dishonest in refusing to reveal how he intends to raise the $5 billion until after the election. The ad ignores that we are already paying $5 billion for a system in which one-third of Vermonters hav...
Vermont needs strength and will
February 16, 2012
Stowe ReporterI would like to respond to the letter “Can Vermont fix health care?” by Helene Martin in the Feb. 9 edition of the Stowe Reporter.“I worry,” Ms. Martin wrote, “that Vermont ... will not be able to afford to fix our broken health-care system, but believe we are trying.”We are trying. Like Ms. Martin, I also support a system where health care is treated as a public good, not as a market commodity. A nearly fatal journey through the nightmare of thi...
Health Care Should be a Public Good
February 15, 2012
Times Argus Misleading information and other distortions have plagued efforts for real health care reform in the past and will no doubt again in the future. For example, John McClaughry states in his recent Times Argus article (Jan. 26) that Vermont has only two health insurance carriers “thanks to laws passed in 1991 and 1992 specifically to drive their competitors out.”These “community rating” laws he referred to were established so that all Vermonters could buy he...
Can Vermont Fix Health Care?
February 04, 2012
Stowe ReporterI have long been a supporter of a single-payer system for health care. Currently, health-care costs nationally represent 18 percent of gross domestic product.I worry that Vermont, as a state with only 627,000 people, will not be able afford to fix our broken health-care system, but believe we are trying.Evidence that our health care is broken:• 50 million people are uninsured (statistics are from T.R. Reid’s book “The Healing of America”).• 30 percent of...
Green Mount Care Criticism Premature
January 27, 2012
Burlington Free PressRandy Brock, a contender for governor in 2012, and others of his political persuasion have targeted the Green Mountain Care Board as a campaign issue. Although the Green Mountain Care Board, mandated by Act 48, has barely begun its work for real health care reform, Brock and other reactionary pundits are already trying to trash its existence even before any plan has been formulated! Expect to see more of the same during this election cycle.All other industrialized nations ha...
Why We Need Health Care Reform
December 12, 2011
Burlington Free Press I would like to thank Pat McDonald, chairwoman of the Vermont Republican Party, for her "My Turn" piece in the Dec. 1 edition of the Burlington Free Press ("Health Care report ignores big questions"). McDonald illustrates so perfectly why we need the complete and systematic health care reform that Vermont embarked on when Gov. Shumlin signed H.202 last May. "The government," she wrote, "needs to make smart and rational decisions, and be ...
The Morality of Health Care
November 27, 2011
Rutland HeraldI would like to thank Dr. Ted Shattuck for his commentary “Vermont can lead the way” in the Nov. 13 edition of the Rutland Herald and Times Argus. Dr. Shattuck made some valid points that seem to have gone missing from our long and tortuous debate on health care reform.In one of these, for instance, Dr. Shattuck wrote that, “22,000 to 45,000 Americans die of preventable deaths each year due to a lack of basic health care.” These are staggering statistics of ...
Community Health Care Forums Helpful
November 15, 2011
Burlington Free Press In the last few weeks, I have participated in several Vermont health care forums, including a forum sponsored by Richmond legislators Anne O'Brien and Jim McCullough, and VPIRG. Thanks to these groups, I am learning how different communities feel about health care reform. People of Vermont understand the need for universal health care coverage for everyone in our state. And no one questions that rising health care costs, close to 20 percent of our state's economy, cann...
Commitment to Community
September 09, 2011
Rutland HeraldAll who treasure and respect life are fortunate to live in Vermont, where sense of community continues to be a key characteristic. Our experience with and continuing responses to the aftermath of Irene illustrate how caring and sharing benefit us all. When I travel, people express great appreciation for the standards and leadership of our small state.Vermont’s ground-breaking commitment to provide equitable health care to all its citizens recognizes health care as a human rig...
Single Payer Plan RIght for Vermont
July 27, 2011
Burlington Free PressI want to support the governor's health care single-payer law, signed in May, to introduce the Green Mountain Care Plan.This is the right thing for the citizens of Vermont. There needs to be a groundswell to get this type of legislature as a federal priority. I noted that the US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio ruled on June 29 that The US Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 is constitutional, including the fact that from 2014 most citizens sho...
The Six Neophytes Have Found A Solution
June 07, 2011
Caledonian RecordTo the Editor:I would like to respond to the editorial "Six Neophytes In Search of A Solution" in the May 20th edition of The Caledonian-Record. This is The Caledonian-Record's endorsement of an earlier editorial it printed by Mr. Rob Roper, where he labeled six members of the house and senate health committees who played key roles in the passing of H.202, "neophytes," as though they had little experience and less qualifications to take on the job of reformin...
Health Care Competence
June 04, 2011
Health care competenceCaledonian RecordTo the Editor:In his recent column questioning the competence of the members of the House and Senate health care committees to undertake meaningful health care reform, Rob Roper concluded with the question: 'Honestly, if you were the head of a probable $5 billion health care corporation, would you hire any of these people to run it?Our answer is, of course, not on your life.'That would not be my answer. Given a choice between the citizen legislators on thos...
Single Payer is the Answer
May 27, 2011
Rutland Herald Single-payer is not about health care — it is about paying for it. Because of a historical fluke, insurance companies got into it. When employers competed for scarce labor during World War II, offering higher wages was not permitted to prevent inflation. So they offered “free” health insurance to be more competitive. Second, insurance is based on statistics and probability, which actuaries use to calculate premiums. But since everybody needs health care soone...
Treat health care as public good
May 01, 2011
As one of thousands of self-employed Vermonters who cannot afford health insurance, the health care legislation currently in the Statehouse is very exciting. Many would have us believe that a universal health care system would take away from our freedom and choice but I can tell you by personal experience that the current system does nothing but deny me those things.If we really want to support Vermont's independent spirit we should separate access to health care from employment, so that small b...
Background on health bill
April 28, 2011
While in a meeting recently the subject of the legislation regarding the single-payer health plan currently being worked on in the Vermont Legislature came up for discussion. I admitted to the group that I did not understand it or how it would work. Then my education began. I am sure I am not the only Vermont resident who feels in the dark about this critical piece of legislation. Therefore, I want to share with everyone what it means and how it will work for the betterment of all of us.Most of ...
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