Lawmakers want Vermont public health care option

Lawmakers want Vermont public health care option By Nancy Remsen, Free Press Staff Writer December 18, 2009MONTPELIER — A public health insurance option may have been yanked from the health reform package the U.S. Senate is debating, but it could come up for consideration in the Vermont Legislature this winter. Rep. Paul Poirier, I-Barre, shared details Thursday of a bill he and two Democrats — Reps. Janet Ancel and Mary Hooper — would offer establishing a public health insurance plan with comprehensive coverage that any Vermonter could purchase.“It is not a single-payer system,” Poirier said. “It is true competition.” Private insurers could continue to sell health plans, he said, but they would have to offer plans at least as comprehensive as the state’s plan. “They can’t offer anything less. No high deductible plans.” Poirier proposes a host of significant changes to the current system of health insurance in the state: • All Vermonters would be required to have health insurance or face financial penalties. • All the existing state insurance programs — Medicaid, Dr. Dynasaur, Vermont Health Access Program and Catamount Health — would be melded into a single health insurance plan that would be called Green Mountain Care.• Vermonters on the state plan would pay based on income with those who have been on Medicaid paying nothing. • Employers would no longer offer health insurance. Individuals would buy directly from private insurers or the state. • All employers would pay a 12 percent payroll tax.• Hospital budgets would be restricted collectively to an annual growth rate of the consumer price index plus 3 percent. Peter Sterling, executive director of the Vermont Campaign for Health Care Security Education Fund, has been part of a group advising Poirier as he developed his public option proposal. Sterling applauded the bill “as a great step that expands what I think is a successful set of health care options — Catamount and VHAP.” “Poirier’s bill is introducing into the conversation that health care should have a budget and everybody should have access to health care that is affordable to them,” Sterling said.

Legislative leaders suggested Thursday that restructuring health care wasn’t likely to be a priority for the 2010 session — given the magnitude of the state’s financial challenges. House Speaker Shap Smith, D-Morristown, noted, too, the many uncertainties about the final shape of the federal health reform package. Before the lawmakers move forward with any changes, he said, “We need to understand the contours of the federal legislation.” Contact Nancy Remsen at 651-4888 or nremsen@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com.