Vermont for Single Payer

06/23/2025

https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2025-06-16/health-care-profits-insurance-history
“People often hear that health care in America is dysfunctional – too expensive, too complex and too inequitable. But dysfunction implies failure. What if the real problem is that the system is functioning exactly as it was designed to? Understanding this legacy is key to explaining not only why reform has repeatedly been unsuccessful, but why change remains so difficult.
…
“By tracing the roots of today’s system and all its problems, it’s easier to understand why American health care looks the way it does and what it will take to reform it into a system that provides high-quality, affordable care for all. Only by confronting how profit, politics and prejudice have shaped the current system can Americans imagine and demand something different.
“Over the past century, U.S. health care developed not from a shared vision of universal care, but from compromises that prioritized private markets, protected racial hierarchies and elevated individual responsibility over collective well-being.”

Understanding this legacy is key to understanding why change remains so difficult.

06/23/2025

06/23/2025

Large Group Rate Last Year: 8.4%l Thus year: 13.7%

:https://vtdigger.org/2025/06/19/vermont-regulators-approve-a-trimmed-increase-to-2026-health-insurance-premiums-for-large-employers/
“Annual premiums for plans sold to businesses and nonprofits with more than 100 employees will increase by almost 14% on average next year.
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“Vermont’s main health care regulator will allow Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont to increase the cost of health insurance premiums for Vermont employers with more than 100 employees by an average of 13.7% in 2026, according to a press release from the Green Mountain Care Board. The rate increase is expected to affect just under 5,000 people in the state.
“The approved rate increase for the same category of plan for 2025 was 8.4% on average.”

Annual premiums for plans sold to businesses and nonprofits with more than 100 employees will increase by almost 14% on average next year.

06/21/2025

https://www.modernhealthcare.com/politics-regulation/mh-gop-tax-plan-cost-cbo/?utm_campaign=KHN%3A%20Daily%20Health%20Policy%20Report&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9DRhZdWUyMt-g7dnecMQSf5HvTbI6u7m_9JPDJv2UAy3e7FxZbQ48wUdxj0pg__vQsPPvW_VaqzvO0j9uxHg5t4fIghg&_hsmi=367376087&utm_content=367376087&utm_source=hs_email
“A new analysis of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 … confirms the healthcare sector faces a hefty $1 trillion loss.”

The legislation, which cuts Medicaid and other programs, would cost the poorest 10% $1,600 a year, the Congressional Budget Office reports.

06/20/2025

https://vtdigger.org/2025/06/18/don-tinney-vermonts-students-among-others-shortchanged-by-exorbitant-health-care-costs/
“The specter of the affordability crisis in health care looms large. We all live in its shadow. Ever-rising commercial premiums and out-of-pocket costs, driven largely by hospital prices and budgets, are an existential threat to the well-being and stability of businesses, public schools, municipal and state institutions, health care workers, patients and families.
“Since 2018 alone, the cost of a family insurance plan on Vermont Health Connect rose by a staggering 92%, making Vermont’s family premiums the most expensive in the country.
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“Between 2020 and 2025, premium contributions by school districts and school employees combined grew by more than 60%.
“The major drivers are hospital and prescription costs.
“Every dollar spent on overpriced medical services and products and bloated hospital administration is a dollar robbed from children’s education. When premium rates rise dramatically, year after year, so do property taxes. Gov. Phil Scott and lawmakers should begin to connect these dots first when they talk about affordability and public education.”

Our collective efforts will not be confined to hospitals, but that is where they must begin.

06/20/2025

It's not just the uninsured...plenty of insured people are in the same boat.

06/19/2025

https://www.beckerspayer.com/payer/how-congress-gets-their-health-insurance/?origin=BHRSUN&utm_source=BHRSUN&utm_medium=email&utm_content=newsletter&oly_enc_id=5766C9953223F2J
“The federal government pays between 72% and 75% of the premium costs for congressional members, employees and their family members, the same amount it contributes to premiums for employees in the FEHB Program.
“In the private sector, employees contribute an average of 19% of their premium costs, with employers paying the remaining 81%, according to 2024 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“Employees paid about 31% of the cost of premiums for their dependents, and employers paid the remaining 69% in 2024.
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“The President, Vice President and their immediate families receive care through the White House Medical Unit, a unit of the White House Military Office.
“According to a January report from the Defense Department, the unit had 60 staff members as of 2019, including physicians, physician assistants, nurses and psychologists.
“Presidents can choose to enroll in private insurance — but with medical staff on call 24/7 at the White House, there is little need to.
” Members of Congress have access to a few additional health benefits. For an annual fee of $650 members can receive routine exams, consultations and some diagnostic tests from the Office of the Attending Physician.
“Members of Congress are also authorized to receive medical care at military hospitals and facilities, though they have to pay for the care they receive there.”

"Learn about the unique healthcare benefits and choices facing members of Congress, from their use of the ACA exchange to their eligibility for Medicare.

06/18/2025

https://www.npr.org/2025/06/09/1253891564/how-doctors-helped-tank-universal-health-care
“A debate has been raging over universal health care in the U.S. since the 1940s. Back then, a formidable opponent emerged to dump a lot of money into ensuring it wouldn't happen. That opponent was doctors. Today on the show, Sally Helm, a Planet Money reporter, comes to us in her capacity as the host of HISTORY This Week to detail how doctors helped tank single pay healthcare back then and the role communism played in the fight.”

A debate has been raging over universal health care in the U.S. since the 1940s. Back then, a formidable opponent emerged to dump a lot of money into ensuring it wouldn't happen. That opponent was doctors. Today on the show, Sally Helm, a Planet Money reporter, comes to us in her capacity as the hos...