Happy New Year! It’s 2012 — an election year. The 2012 legislative sweepstakes begin tomorrow when lawmakers descend on Montpelier for the opening of the session, but several bills are already waiting in the queue.
As promised, Republican candidate for governor and state Sen. Randy Brock (R-Franklin) has drafted legislation to force the Shumlin administration’s hand on what could become a key issue in the 2012 campaign: how to pay for health care reform.
Brock (pictured) is sponsoring legislation, S.163, that would move up the due date for Gov. Peter Shumlin’s recommendations for financing Green Mountain Care, the name for Vermont’s universal health care experiment, from January 15, 2013 to September 15 of this year.
Just in time for campaign season.
Vermonters for Health Care Freedom, a group opposed to single-payer health care, has been circulating an online petition called “How Much Will It Cost? Who Will Pay?” demanding a September 2012 release of the financing plan.
Brock’s legislation asserts that, “The public has a right to hear and understand the proposed financing plans in advance of the November 2012 election, in which the future direction of Vermont’s health care planning is likely to be a major issue for debate.”
In today’s Burlington Free Press, Shumlin tells reporter Terri Hallenbeck the delay is not at all political. It’s logistical.
“If I could have had this ready for next month, I would be there,” Shumlin tells the Freeps.
But as VT Digger (or one of its commenters) has pointed out, at least one Democratic lawmaker (a doctor, no less) says the basics of the financing model could be easily worked out sooner than 2013.
“The delays are not necessary but are political in nature,” state Rep. George Tiller Till (D-Jericho) said last fall in a Vermont Medical Society newsletter. “The exact price tag can’t be known, but that is always true in state budgeting. That is why we do a budget adjustment bill every single year.
“However, what part of the new system will be financed through payroll tax, what part through income tax, what part through new and expanded consumption taxes, what other funding sources will be included does not require waiting until 2013,” Tiller Till continued. “The delay causes unnecessary uncertainty which neither businesses nor physicians like.”
While it’s doubtful that Brock’s bill will go anywhere in the Democrat-dominated legislature, it should at least make for some entertaining election-year theater.
This article appears in Dec 28, 2011 – Jan 3, 2012.
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Till. George Till.
Andy
You
referred to Vermonters for Health Care Freedom as “a group opposed to
single-payer health care.” A group? Who are they? Where does the funding
come from? To date, the front person has refused to provide that information.
Don’t you find it ironic that the people calling for transparency won’t release
funding information?
The State won’t pay to investigate elder abuse, can’t wait to see how they handle my medical needs.
i find this only mildly reasonable –
if the requester’s stance, and i am not familiar with mr brock in any way (i am new to vt from tx) were a universal position –
in regard to how we are to pay for our other projects in government (in no particular order and not meant as not being necessary or desirable) : military spending, road and housing rebuilding funds, corporate subsidies, business incentives, and education) –
then i would consider the request as “reasonable”
more reasonable, to me, is the question, how and why are we not providing adequate health coverage for ourselves, meaning we the citizens of our own country…
the answers to that, i don’t have, unfortunately, but i sure am interested in suggested solutions
A tip of the hat to Dr. Till for having the courage to challenge party orthodoxy.
Brock and the GOP will be playing this rant over and over because they have no idea how to improve health care. 7 Days should remind them the legislature has scheduled the process to decide what the coverage of GMC will be in 2012…then they have to determine the costs. Then in 2013 the recommendation on how to pay for it will be made. Logical, doing the home works first. doing it right the Vermont way…not just GOP political spin.
PS Hsaio report projects savings of nearly $500million, so will leave money to pay hospitals and Doctors properly( so they will not leave the state), cover people who have no insurance (i.e. avoid cost shifting into Hospital emergency rooms) Taking steps to fix our broken and unfair health system. .and still maybe..just maybe cut our costs overall.
Remember we are now paying over $5.3B now.. there there is a good chance we will be pay less..certainly no big increase the GOP scare tactics project.
ps The Wendy Wilton paper is a sham…
What is logical about passing a bill before figuring out what it’s going to cost and then finally how to pay for it?
The assumptions in the Hsaio report that you reference are based on a new employer payroll tax of 11% and an employee payroll tax of 4%. Convenient that the governor doesn’t want to discuss until after the election.
If it is such a good plan, the governor should be willing to defend it in an election debate.
You are incorrect. The only bill that has passed is Act 48 ( you should read it) it set in place the steps to define, cost and recommend how GMC is to be paid for. After this home work is done, discussed across the state then the legislature will vote on how it wants to go forward.
Your statement about Hsaio is also incomplete and misleading. He gives several examples, one of which the payroll tax. You ignored the fact that if this was done, all current health insurance payments would go away, both by individuals, businesses, towns for teachers, state employees etc. This would be likely less than we are now paying.
One must be careful, there is a lot of miss information being spread by the health insurance establishment. This establishment has proven to be a costly and very inefficient method of paying for health care. It will lose a good portion of it’s revenues and fees under GMC. This amounts to several Hundred Million Dollars in Vermont alone. You will see more well financed people lobbying, spreading miss information to maintain the status quo.
Progress and change is always hard…but that is the essence of healthy, (pun?) vibrant capitalist societies.