Posted on 03/25/2011 9:52:29 AM PDT by Libloather
Vt. House passes single-payer bill
DAVE GRAM
Posted: 03/24/2011 10:49:46 PM EDT
MONTPELIER -- Every Vermonter could sign up for state-financed health insurance under a bill passed by the House on Thursday that would put the state on a path to a single-payer health care system by the middle of this decade.
Senate next
"This bill takes our state one step closer to a system that ensures that all Vermonters have access to the care they deserve and contains costs," House Speaker Shap Smith said shortly after the House passed the bill 92-49.
The measure now goes to the Senate, where it is expected to pass, but with some possible changes.
Gov. Peter Shumlin, who made single-payer health care a centerpiece of his gubernatorial campaign last year, also praised the legislation. He said it would make Vermont "the first state in the country to make the first substantive step to deliver a health care system where health care will be a right and not a privilege, where health care will follow the individual, not be a requirement of the employer, and where we’ll have an affordable system that contains costs."
Costs are an open question. The bill sets up a five-member state board to design a benefit package to be called Green Mountain Care, but doesn’t require the governor to propose a way to pay for it until 2013. That drew fire from minority Republicans in the House, who said the hard partof reform -- paying for it -- won’t be tackled until after Shumlin campaigns for a second two-year term in 2012. They also said the bill would create too much uncertainty for businesses in the state. "Creating a health care system based on theory and campaign promises is not good policy," said House Minority Leader Don Turner, R-Milton.
Rep. Thomas Burditt, R-West Rutland, went further, arguing that government should sharply reduce, not increase, its role in the delivery of health care.
Burditt quoted V.I. Lenin, leader of the Russian Revolution and founder of the Soviet Communist Party, as saying "medicine is the keystone in the arch of socialism," adding, "I believe those who are promoting ‘universal coverage’ via government-run and government-controlled medicine know this. What they hope is that the public won’t find out the truth. There is nothing compassionate about socialism. "
That drew a rebuke from Rep. Paul Poirier, I-Barre, a supporter of the bill. "I take offense at the remarks ... that we’re socialists, that we’re communists," he said. "I ask all members to respect other people’s points of view."
Poirier spoke of profit-driven insurance companies denying coverage to people who should have it had coming, and, before Vermont passed laws to bar the practice, "cherry-picking" young and healthy subscribers who would pay into their coffers without being costly to cover.
Despite the Republicans’ complaints, majority Democrats largely held together with their leadership to pass the bill. A similar outcome is expected in the Senate, though that chamber’s president pro tem, Sen. John Campbell, said members would do their "due diligence" on the bill and might seek some changes.
The bill outlines a four-year timeline leading to establishment of the statewide, publicly funded system. It begins by setting up the Green Mountain Care Board on July 1 with a budget of $1.2 million to begin planning the new system. It then creates a health insurance marketplace -- or "exchange," of the sort required by last year’s federal health care legislation. And it then calls for converting the exchange to the Green Mountain Care system.
The Shumlin administration and supporters of the bill need to address numerous uncertainties as the process goes forward. One concerns the more than 100,000 Vermonters who get health coverage from employers who are self-insured, meaning they assume the financial risks of coverage, and are chartered under federal law.
The House defeated a proposed amendment to allow those employers, among them the state’s largest, like IBM, to be exempt from paying taxes to support Green Mountain Care. Rep. Anne Donahue, R-Northfield, said that would leave them in a similar situation to parents who send their children to private schools, but pay taxes to support public ones.
I bet they are. But, that's how socialism works.
If Vermont were a stock...time to sell it short..
These commu/socialists with their one-way streets. Why should I have ANY respect for someone's POV who so clearly has zero respect for mine?
Have they met Bernie Sanders?
Hey man. I am all for states rights. If you want to do this, great. Just don't come to me in PA when your dope smoking POS leftist voters are upset that you have no way to fund this. This is your states responsibility to cover and not the Federales job to bail you out. BTW I look forward to this. Let all the freeloaders in the NE move to your Commie state for their free lunch. This should really redden up some purple states up here.
Why should we respect a POV we disgree with anyway? I certainly can respect a person and his right to have his own opinion but doesn't create a requirement that I respect his POV if I find it ridiculous or wrongheaded. And I don't disprespect a person just because I don't respect his POV.
So, what happens if I go to Vermont and have no insurance and don’t work?
Seriously. There are tons and tons of such.
That drew a rebuke from Rep. Paul Poirier, I-Barre, a supporter of the bill. “I take offense at the remarks ... that we’re socialists, that we’re communists,” he said. “I ask all members to respect other people’s points of view.”
IOW::Sniffsniff::Please don’t call us what we are....
How many Vermonters COULD have health insurance but refuse to do so? This red herring about pre-existing conditions or the anecdotal stories of people being dropped is as silly as it was in the national debate.
This will be as miserable a failure as MassCare, TennCare and Zerocare.
Can’t wait for it to blow up on them because I am just that “mean”.
Good. Now all the socialists in the other states can go move to Vermont.
The British system always assumed that the people “too much.”from the system. For awhile that worked ok, because after 1940, the people lived very regimented lives. So up till about 1960, costs were kept under control. Then the country began to recover from the war, a new generation emerged, and people began to expect more, to go to the doctor more and more. They began to expect something better than army medicine. Well, the people of Vermont expect to be cured of death, but they are going to get “death panels.”
I think it is pretty funny and telling that VT is the only state that President Bush did not step foot in during his 8 years in office... a non-verbal "FU" to Vermont.
No kidding. I am sure the socialist/commie who whined about people engaging in their free speech rights made no condemnation of the other leftists who call conservatives all sorts of nasty names. If this socialist/commie can't take his fur being rubbed the wrong way, then perhaps he can consider a new line of work.
Time for states to start offering one way bus tickets to Vermont.
S-O-C-I-A-L-I-S-T-!
Hey, is not Bernie “I am a Socialist” Sanders from Vermont? /s =.=
Awesome news and I fully support Vermont taking the lead on this issue!
Now the rest of the states have a place to send their freeloaders to. Vermont: the handout state.
This is fine.
This is what should have happened all along ... each state can come up with its own health care laws/system, whatever.
I see nothing wrong with this if this is what Vermont wants. States’ Rights.
But other states should not have to pay for it.
Kimesa Smith whacks Burger King employees with charity coin jar after Whopper Jr. takes too long
Congratulations comrades!
Costs will quickly become much more than a mere ‘open question’ when all the other peoples’ money runs out.
He just called them like he saw them. Stating a fact isn’t offensive, except to liberals.
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