From the Desk of Bob McNett….. Vermont is first state to try government-run, single payer health insurance. Vermont is the first state to outlaw slavery in it’s constitution. It is the first state to allow same-sex civil unions. It is the first state to recognize same-sex marriage by legislation, instead of court order. Now, based on a 2011 vote by the Vermont legislature, it will be the first state to adopt a government-run, single payer health plan by the year 2017.

Democratic Governor Peter Shumlin ran his successful campaign in 2010 with universal, single-payer health care at the center of his platform.

Vermont may be the perfect test tube state to try out a single-payer plan. It is tiny and it has Democratic super-majorities in both legislative chambers. It’s seven hospitals are spread out across the state, and do not tend to think of each other as competitors. Vermont might be considered to be the most liberal state in the union, overall.

Now that Act 48 (the name of the bill) is law, the hard part of figuring out how to make it work begins.

Vermont currently collects about $2.85 billion in tax revenues annually. It is estimated that this amount would need to nearly double to pay for the cost of the state government paying for all health care needs of it’s citizens. This is more in additional taxes than the $1.9 billion in health insurance premiums that Vermonters pay each year.

There are plenty of supporters for the new system, but dissenters are not hard to find.

Dan McCauliffe, a dermatologist in Rutland, fears that creating a finite budget for health care costs in the state will result in the same condition seen in other countries with single-payer coverage….long waiting times and the rationing of care. “If I was younger, I would probably leave the state,”he said.

Ted Adler, owner of Union Street Media, a Burlington web design firm, predicted that for him and his employees the new taxes will exceed any premium savings by more than $150,000 per year. The cost of his company’s health plan reflects the relative youth and health of his 40-employee work force.

On the other side of the coin, Dr. Deb Richter, an addiction specialist, is excited about the approaching change. “All my patients will have the same insurance and the same benefits,” says Richter. “There will be one set of rules, one set of regulations, one set rate of reimbursement and one formulary.”

It will be interesting to follow this experiment as this new system is adopted.

Bob McNett

The McNett Agency

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