Governor Peter Shumlin recently stated that regardless of the U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding the Affordable Care Act, Vermont can and must continue down the road of creating a single payer health care system. He is right.
No matter what happens at the federal level, we Vermonters are already paying the bill for a broken system, and single payer is a much better way to create access to health care for all Vermonters in a cost effective way.
Right now, 200,000 Vermonters are either underinsured or uninsured, while many individuals and businesses experience constant premium increases. Many people go without care or go bankrupt due to medical expenses, and we waste unnecessary funds on insurance company profits and bureaucracy.
The governor recognizes that our present system is neither fiscally responsible nor humane. He rightly says that we are already paying more than we need to, and that our dollars can be used more efficiently to cover everyone through single payer.
Let’s not panic about the outcome of the Supreme Court decision. As Governor Shumlin astutely observes, Vermont can carve out its own solution to the health care crisis.
ELLEN OXFELD
Middlebury