Chiropractic, July 25 at 8:29 pm,

Green Mountain Care – Future challenges for universal
health care in Vermont —Posted by Scott Houston on Jun 20, 2011

“When Governor Peter Shumlin signed the Green Mountain
Care bill into law on May 26th, he admitted that the state still
has “a few challenges” before Vermont can claim to be the first to
boast universal health care for its residents. And while there has
been a lot of rejoicing from health reform advocates over the
success of this bill, whether you support or oppose universal
health care, it’s still a long way off before that’s a reality in
Vermont.  A full version of the passed bill is here. [PDF].”

“It’s not a health care plan….yet.”

“Before Vermonters become too excited about Green Mountain
Care, there’s one thing they should know: the bill contains
few specifics for how it will actually work. No details on how the
plan will be paid for or what benefits will be covered is included in
the bill. Instead, it is a general outline for creation of a plan that
includes a transition to a single payer health care plan for all
Vermonters along with the creation of a regulatory board to be
named by the Governor.”

“The bill outlines the necessary investigative work that the board
is to administer along with a time-line for relevant findings and
recommendations. Only then will we know more specific details
about coverage and how Green Mountain Care is to be
paid for.”

“Essentially, this bill acts as an “I owe you” to the citizens of
Vermont. It’s a commitment to finding a way to make universal
healthcare a reality in the state. And while this is certainly a step
in the right direction for advocates of socialized medicine, the devil
is in the details. Unforeseen challenges may yet lay ahead as
there is still room for dissent on many of the specifics, particularly
how to administer the financial burdens of such an ambitious plan.”

Federal waivers

“In order for Vermont to implement this new health care system it
needs to qualify for a number of federal waivers. The first part of
the bill, relating to the creation of the Vermont Health Benefits
Exchange, can be eligible for a federal waiver as early as 2014.
Another waiver, however, needed to implement the single-payer
component under federal law would not be available until 2017.
There is a current bill being introduced that would allow a federal
waiver for the single-payer component by 2014, however despite
the support of the Obama administration, this bill currently lacks
the support it needs in the senate.”

http://www.insurancequotes.org/green-mountain-care-future-challenges-for-universal-health-care-in-vermont/

Apparently chickens have been being counted before they hatch, and universal health care may never hatch in Vermont.

This sounds wonderful. I believe that people of Vermont who have been struggling with medical costs, such as those chalked up from operations, chiropractic sessions or consultations, will appreciate this very much. Perhaps this will set an example for the rest of the country to follow.

Michael, May 5 at 7:01 am,

What do you think about the cost of living [COLA] staying the
same while the cost of buying whatever is needed for living is
going up?  Because the cost of living is getting outrageous, but no
COLA.

Also, what do you think about a situation that has happened
within my family when a member of my family was seriously hurt at
work, and has fought for years to get repaired and has gotten half
repaired but it will cost $150,000. for the surgery to finish the
repair, but the courts have decided to go along with the company
and only give said family member $75,000. which said member has
to share with the attorney, which means said family member will
get no more surgery—insurance cancelled and without work
because of damage to spine—prospects of work because of the
damage is nil.  The court reminded said family member of being in
peasant status and said the needed surgery could be gotten by
filing for disability and going through the government, and that if
said family member presses the court any further, said family
member will receive nothing more whatsoever.  Said family
member needs the surgery and has no assurances that filing for
disability will in fact gain the operation and filing for disability
means losing the ability to work altogether, which is not what is
needed or wanted, but all that is allowed for the new peasant
population status, which is the majority population, as a new law
has been passed where $350,000. is all that will be awarded even
if your company caused you to be a quadriplegic.  It is this type of
thinking that makes it imperative for the majority population to
have health care for all like Vermont.  Because,
without the surgery, said family member will
more than likely become a quadriplegic, as none
of her family members are able to afford the
$150,000. operation.

Lafayette, May 2 at 2:17 am,

All non 3rd world countries have medical health care for all their
citizens and do not leave out their common population like the United
States does in all states, with the exception of Vermont.

NO FREE LUNCHES

It is extremely difficult to get Canadian citizenship

Declare yourself, preferably in Canada, to be a political refugee from America’s Plutocracy Rule!

(It wont obtain you Canadian citizenship any quicker but you will make the headlines ... ;^)

I’m joking off course, do nothing of the kind. With what is happening in LaLaLand on the Potomac, you could easily lose your American citizenship. Which can only be taken away from you if you have adopted another nationality.

And for all its present ills, America is still a bastion of democracy and freedom of personal initiative. Live abroad and you will understand why and to what extent.

POST SCRIPTUM

America has become inured to the Quick Fix by which it reduces all complex problems to “sound bites” and whereupon politicos peddle their policy nostrums.

The country began its excursion into Right Wing “Individualist Supremacy” with the advent of Reckless Ronnie into the White House in 1980. To further enrich his election-funding constituency, RR made good on his promise to reduce drastically Marginal Income and Capital Gains taxes.

We, the sheeple, are now paying the cost of that idiocy.

The cycle RR initiated has gone thirty years and, I like to think, is coming to a well-deserved termination. However, nothing in history is that abrupt and change takes time.

After lurching Rightwards, we are, quite possibly, on a shift back to the center. As much as I espouse a Progressive Agenda further to the Left, I don’t think Americans have the awareness of what such an agenda promises or the fundamental changes it requires.

But, who knows, history has a way of unfolding in ways that are profoundly mysterious.

Anyway, have no fear of living abroad. America may not have known how to mutate towards Social Justice - but other countries have learned how to evolve in such a manner.

An American national, I have lived abroad for decades and find that, compared to family I left behind stateside, I have lived better abroad than they given the recent decade-long economic eruptions. With age, the necessity of Social Safety Nets takes on great importance, which is why a great many expats prefer to live in Europe.

The US simply does not compare with some other countries that have made much greater progress in the matter. Yes, yes, they all have higher taxation to pay for what is called Social Justice (read fairness or equitability). But, there is no Free Public Health Care Option just as there are no free lunches.

Post-WW2 Europe built its system of Social Justice, whilst Uncle Sam was off trumpeting the triumphs of oligarchs like Donald Trump or Warren Buffet or Madonna or American denizens of Forbes’ List of Billionaires.

MY POINT

Someone, anyone, please remind me how any one of those Forbes-listed individuals could be on that list without having has access to Market Economies dependent upon a collective of consumers such as you and I. Which one of those billionaires could have obtained their immense fortunes all alone on a deserted island?

And therefore why were they allowed to amass those riches in their countries whilst abject poverty also coexisted with them? By what logic could this aggregation of exaggerated wealth be allowed to happen? What was its utility?

By no logic whatsoever. It just happened that way because GOP Administrations brought down greatly both Marginal Income and Capital Gains taxes - right underneath our noses.

Whilst we swallowed the Media Pablum that “you too can become enormously rich in this Great Country of ours!”

Yeah, right ...

Lafayette

It is extremely difficult to get Canadian citizenship.  I have to admit that I have been scouring Canadian academic vacancies in Chronicle of Higher Education, but I believe they only appoint International professors if they just absolutely can’t find the perfect Canadian person.

kr: but if there is a kinder, gentler place in this country… maybe I’ll just move to Vermont.

If so, commute to your job from Quebec and take out Canadian citizenship! Quebec has an HC-system based on the French model and is one of the best around.

Canada also has a better education system than the US, but, who cares? Right?

I for one have recently had to give up my subsidized healthcare because it just got raised again… $200 hike a month raised $50 to $75 a year for the last three years.  As an Adjunct Professor I do not get health care benefits.

I have been getting my paperwork ready to get Irish citizenship, but if there is a kinder, gentler place in this country… maybe I’ll just move to Vermont.

By the way, I’m sure there is a minimum residency time required in Vermont before you are eligible to receive benefits.

I am truly shocked and amazed. But is this in reality as movement towards a single payer system, or a smokescreen designed to self destruct it?

What are the limitation? Did then also implement new “immigration” laws, and if not.. Whats has been setup to prevent the State of Vermont from becoming the United States largest leper colony?

Sick dying people in a state of desperation seeking medical salvation. Will they be welcomed with open arms, or will they be turned away at gunpoint? Will the borders remain open?

Will there be enough jobs to support the massive boom in population increases? Will they also be providing welfare or unemployment to all those people who are too sick to work or that there is simply no jobs for?

And most importantly, will any other states dare to create a similar system once Vermont finds out exactly how their state is going to be affected.

Don’t get me wrong. I feel that a single payer system is one of the most important things we need to establish. But i really feel that any attempts to create such a system at anything but the federal level is doomed to failure.

But then again, that could be the point.
“Oh look what happened to Vermont, Your insane if you think we should try this at a federal level.”

If I were a betting man, and knowing just what politicians are capable of when under the influence of the money provided by multimillion dollar corporations, I’d put my money on that being the case.

I hope i’m wrong.. I really do.. But I just don’t think I am.

The Conservatives and Republicans will do all possible to cause
Universal Health Care to fail, but I hope and pray that the
Conservatives and Republicans fail to bring down Universal Health
Care, because there is nothing the nation of the United States needs
more than Universal Health Care for the population.

Governor Dean was undoubtedly involved in the Vermont winning
campaign for Universal Health Care and I would hope he would run
for president and bring Universal Health Care to the entire country.

A GOOD START BUT NO KEWPIE DOLL

It is unimaginable to anyone living in Europe that a Health Care system based upon private insurance can lead to “lower health care costs”. As it stands today, the total cost of American HC (practitioner fees, hospital charges, tests, pharmaceuticals) costs at least twice as much per person and in some countries 3 times more. (See results of OECD study here)

The private insurance companies are not part of the solution, they are part of the problem.

There are damn few areas that should be run by government, I submit, but one of them is Health Care and the other one is primary-to-tertiary Eduction.

Both are solid investments in human well-being, well worth whatever taxes are necessary to deliver them adequately and universally to the American public.

MY POINT

The Vermont initiative is a good option to the present system - but just about anything with a single-payer component is a better option.

Only a bona fide Public Option, Federally run by the Department of Health Care, that delivers mandated-pricing of HC-services will reduce overall costs. That’s the way Europe has been doing it for almost half a century.

This is really a great way for Vermont to lead the way. 
I can’t say I’m particularly happy with the federal
“reforms” that seem to ultimately protect the insurers
from the worst criciticisms and declining consumer
interest, but this plan will actually put the
responsibility for cost and effectiveness in one place. 
We can’t really count on the slow, corrupt machine in
D.C. to fix all of the problems it has exacerbated over
the decades, so I’m very glad to see someone willing to
go above and beyond.  Now… if other states could just
follow along, we could have a trend going in no time!

Think I am going to move to Vermont! Apparently the state government is not controlled by lobbyists from the insurance companies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Correction, a digital error. My digits mistakenly typed ‘manna’ instead of ‘money’.

Tdoff,

I have always hoped that one day a neo-conservative backward state, like texas or oklahoma or kansas would indeed suceed from the union, and at the same time, a progressive state like oregon or vermont does the same. It would be interesting to see 10 years down the road, which state would still be standing.

Of course, by then there may not be a USA to share the findings with. All us “good Germans” will be spending our saturday nights burning books and rounding up non-believers.

Vermont’s best decision might be to join Canada, they’ll live longer.

kogwonton, Exactamente! You speak truth. Unfortunately, in today’s US institution, with the lunatics in charge of the asylum, each sane, rational step or proposal is confronted by a multitude, a majority, of enemies, brainwashed to revere, to have faith in, the current US ‘religion’, the idolization of manna.

TDoff -

Nobody does the right thing without creating enemies - and many have been judged by the greatness of their enemies.

Superficially, this looks and sounds like a great plan.

However, given a little thought, this may not bode well for Vermont or Vermonters. First, they have now created a vast pool of enemies of Vermont. The republican party, the Tea Party, the Health ‘Industry’, the Insurance ‘Industry’, the National Chamber of Commerce, the AMA, the lawyers, and on-and-on ad infinitum, will not only be hoping for, but doing whatever they can to insure that the Vermont single-payer health plan fails.

But suppose the Vermont plan succeeds, and Vermonters live much longer, healthier lives than the rest of the nation. The question then becomes, will the long-lived, healthy Vermonters be happier?

Well, suppose you were going to live a lot of extra years, in full good health, with all your faculties intact. Would you enjoy spending all that extra time having to observe the rest of the United States, the new fourth-world nation, become a cesspool of untreated, maltreated, mistreated citizens of all ages, from infants through the elderly, unable to obtain or pay for even the basics of health care, stumbling and crawling through the wastelands of their urban and rural slums, ignored by the plutocrats within their gated confines and walled estates, disdained by ‘their’ political representatives?

Yeah! for Vermont.  Now which state will be next to follow suit.  All
the states in the United States need to follow Vermont’s lead so that
the entire United States will have universal health care, because no
one should be turned away when they are in need of medical
attention.

Here’s hoping that other states follow suit.

What would be even better is revoking the insurance companies anti trust exemption.

Bravo, Mr. Shumlin. You are a beacon of sanity in a mad world.