Vermont—Home of Ben and Jerry’s, Maple Syrup, Bernie Sanders and the first state to pass marriage equality. Now, Vermont will be known for something that will impact every resident in the state.
The ACA provided states with federal funds to institute a Medicaid expansion. The states chose to expand the program also were able to set up their own state exchanges, which were relatively free from the problems the federal site had. Vermont decided to take it a step further by setting up their very own single payer system.
The slogan of the program: Everybody in, nobody out.
The program will be fully operational by 2017, and will be funded through Medicare, Medicaid, federal money for the ACA given to Vermont, and a slight increase in taxes. In exchange, there will be no more premiums, deductibles, copay’s, hospital bills or anything else aimed at making insurance companies a profit. Further, all hospitals and healthcare providers will now be nonprofit.
This system will provide an instant boost the state economy. On the one side, you have workers that no longer have to worry about paying medical costs or a monthly premium and are able to use that money for other things. On the other side, you have the burden of paying insurance taken off of the employers side, who will be able to use the saved money to provide a better wage and/or reinvest in their company through updated infrastructure and added jobs. It is a win-win solution.
To make sure that it is done right the first time, Vermont brought in a specialist who knows a thing or two about setting up a single-payer system.
Dr. William Hsaio, the Harvard health care economist who helped craft health systems in seven countries, was Vermont’s adviser. He estimates that Vermont will save 25 percent per capita over the current system in administrative costs and other savings....Truthout
Vermont Approves Single-Payer Health Care: "Everybody In, Nobody Out"
Salvatore Aversa, Occupy Democrats | Report
5 comments:
"federal money for the ACA given to Vermont,"
Just had a meeting yesterday on this and looks like this part of the system is still NOT FUNCTIONAL... problem is on the FEDERAL side...
rsp,
The first domino on the way to single payer?
Yes!
Wishful thinking.
Vermont's plan will have to be approved by the Feds. It seems unlikely that the corrupt Federal politicians will approve a plan that gets rid of private insurance companies.
Also, it's not clear in my mind that the executive branch has the power to re-allocate Medicare funds to Vermont's single payer program. Seems like that would require an act of Congress?
Then there is the problem of how to pay for it. Vermont is proposing new regressive taxes .... groan. Their tax revenues will fall during recessions while demand for services will go up. It's easy to see that leading to problems.
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