Health Care

            The recent passage of Act 191, the Health Care Affordability Act, is an important step toward providing health care coverage for uninsured Vermonters.  While this bill includes important provisions to begin controlling health care costs, such as healthy lifestyle discounts, simplifying administrative procedures, full support for Governor Douglas' chronic care initiative, and more, it will not be the end of the health care reform discussion.

Vermont's uninsured are a symptom of an overall affordability problem.  One of the major cost drivers for private insurance today is the cost shift from underpayments to providers and hospitals by Medicaid and Medicare.  Last year, the cost shift onto private payers from Vermont's Medicaid program was $59 million and exceeded the cost shift from the federal Medicare program for the first time in Vermont's history.  The fact is, we are facing a huge Medicaid deficit in the near term and we simply do not have money to throw at the problem anymore.  Solving this problem will require serious people to put aside purely partisan concerns to fashion a solution.