Some more detail on the Vermont universal hc bill

The article below includes more detailed info about the Vermont healthcare bill that was recently passed. It, like the Massachusetts bill, does nothing to solve the main problem behind spiralling healthcare costs -- the high overhead and profit-taking that occurs when healthcare is administered by private insurers. It does allow for a review of the job these insurers are doing running Vermont's new Catamount Health program after 2 years, with the possibility of handing things over to a public agency. My cynnical nature leads me to believe that the forces currently in place won't allow that to happen, no matter how bad things are -- not without some serious grassroots pressure. It's also interesting to note that studies have been made that show costs inevitably increase when private plans duplicate services provided by public ones. See the PDF of the article National Health Insurance or Incremental Reform: Aim High, or at Our Feet?

Reform is in the eye of the beholder
By Shay Totten Vermont Guardian

The words rang out loud and clear across the Green Mountain State at the end of the legislative session — health care reform was finally achieved after nearly two years of partisan bickering.

But many long-time reform watchers say the final compromise between lawmakers and the governor will do little to actually bring down the cost of health care or health insurance in the short term. They predict that it may leave many Vermonters expecting a decrease in premiums with a bad taste in their mouths.

The compromise health care bill, which many Republicans and nearly all Progressives refused to support, puts in motion a plan, Catamount Health, aimed at covering as many as 25,000 uninsured Vermonters, helping those who are underinsured, and lowering the premiums for those enrolled in one of the Medicaid-funded plans.

In the end, Democrats agreed to let existing private insurance companies sell Catamount Health to Vermonters rather than have the plan offered through a third-party administrator (TPA). Democrats had wanted a fallback, TPA-run plan if the private insurers balked. So the Douglas administration offered a provision to require that all insurers carry the new plan, and that at the end of two years the system can be examined to determine if it is working. At that time, the Legislature could decide to have Catamount Health run by a third-party administrator. ...

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