As states open insurance marketplaces amid uncertainty about whether they are a solution for health care, Vermont is eyeing a bigger goal, one that more fully embraces a government-funded model.
The state has a planned 2017 launch of the nation’s first universal health care system, a sort of modified Medicare-for-all that has long been a dream for many liberals.
The plan is especially ambitious in the current atmosphere surrounding health care in the United States. Republicans in Congress balk at the federal health overhaul years after it was signed into law. States are still negotiating their terms for implementing it. And some major employers have begun to drastically limit their offerings of employee health insurance, raising questions about the future of the industry altogether.
In such a setting, Vermont’s plan looks more and more like an anomaly. It combines universal coverage with new cost controls in an effort to move away from a system in which the more procedures doctors and hospitals perform, the more they get paid, to one in which providers have a set budget to care for a set number of patients.
The result will be health care that’s “a right and not a privilege,” Gov. Peter Shumlin said.
I truly think that this is the future of health care in this country, and once Vermont demonstrates how workable and superior the model is there will be vast pressure placed on other states, and the federal government, to follow suit.
Man this is definitely going to make some Right Wing heads explode!
Not to burst anyone's bubble, Gryphen, but isn't that basically what was said about Romneycare in Massachusetts? Or very similar, anyway.
ReplyDeleteRomneycare depends on everyone purchasing health insurance. Vermont is eliminating this and instead, adding a health tax. What some folks may not realize (at least those who have employer-based insurance) is that their wages/salaries should increase by the amount the employer has been paying to the insurance company.
DeleteI'm suggesting that being next-door to Canada has been a positive influence on Vermont legislators (!!!).
I like the idea, Maple, but I was talking about Gryphen's comment about it being the future of health insurance and such. Everyone was all hepped up about it - until our current President got elected and pushed for it on the Federal level.
Delete"...which providers have a set budget to care for a set number of patients..."
ReplyDeletethat method gets providers into their merry game of "encouraging" expensive patients to seek other providers
I agree with you 1:18. While I agree that some kind of cost control needs to be done, like cutting back on the "test to keep from being sued" idea, I believe a better way needs to be created. A fixed budget can't work since not every doctor lives in areas that DON'T have general health problems.
DeleteWhat is a doctor supposed to do if he works in an area that has a higher cancer rate than three towns away?
I'm not doing a very good job of getting my point across, I know, but I would hope that point is addressed seriously.
And on the left coast:
ReplyDelete"After eight years of Bush-Republican malfeasance that decimated the world’s economy, many voters learned that Republicans were incompetent, and dangerous, but it is likely voters in California were more observant than the rest of the nation.
In 2010 when angry racists sent teabaggers and extremist Republicans to Congress and several governorships, California voters still remembered the Bush disaster and when presented with a clear choice between a dangerous Bush-surrogate and a centrist Democrat, they chose wisely and rejected the Bush clone (Meg Whitman).
Republicans are wont to tell Americans that Democratic governance will bring about economic and social apocalypse, but if Americans want to understand just how wrong Republicans are, they should look to California for a model the entire country should follow."
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/10/28/understand-wrong-republicans-california.html
I am very happy to see this.
ReplyDeleteHoward Dean Gives S.E. Cupp Taste Of Fact-Based Reality
ReplyDeleteWhy S.E. Cupp is considered any sort of serious commentator worthy of Sunday shows is truly beyond me, but evidently the bookers at This Week with George Stephanopoulis thought an Art History major carries knowledge of health care issues with it.
Evidently her deep, careful study of health care and young people has led her to this conclusion:
There's two problems, one is the technological, sort of mechanics of this. Obamacare relies on Millennials, these young invincibles who have never bought health insurance in the past, to suddenly change their behavior and buy something they don't think they need. And in some cases can't afford. That mechanical issue remains to be seen and the web site rollout has affected that.
Gosh, I guess Cupp missed the 2012 campaign where people went nuts every time Obama mentioned letting them stay on their parents' policies until they're 26? Or story after story of how a young person couldn't qualify for health insurance because they were treated for acne when they were teens?
I could go on, but Governor Dean delivered the goods not only to Cupp, but also to George Stephanopoulis who ought to know better:
STEPHANOPOULOS: Wait a minute the White House just said that they have to have about 1/3 of the people 2.7 million of the 7 million people have to be young people.
CUPP: That's what it means.
DEAN: No. That's not true actually. Because the reason that is framed as being true is everybody assumes that you can't do community rating without an individual mandate, and that's not true. And I know that because I did it 20 years ago. We did most of the stuff that's in Obamacare--
STEPHANOPOULOS: In Vermont.
DEAN: In Vermont and we also have almost every child under 18 has had health insurance in our state for 20 years. And we've had community rating, really tough community rating where you couldn't charge more than 20% above your base rate to anybody in the country, in the state. And you couldn't discriminate anybody for pre-existing conditions. We've had this for 20 years.
Newsflash for GSteph and Cupp: The White House didn't say what you think they said, as Kaiser News explains:
One misconception about the 7 million number creeping into the conversation is that it is a target necessary to achieve a viable insurance pool with a good mix of healthier and sick people. The principle is right — the larger the number, the better the chances of spreading risk — but the CBO was calculating the number who might be covered in the first year to estimate federal spending, not to lay down a threshold for the program’s success.
In a larger context, this exchange highlights how vapid these shows have become. Bringing SE Cupp on to spew right wing talking points with absolutely ZERO knowledge of how these things work is evidence that they're less interested in clarifying controversial issues than they are about making more controversy.
Howard Dean was there this time, but what about the next time? I'd say there shouldn't BE a next time. Quit pandering to demographics, ABC, and start dealing with facts.
http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/howard-dean-gives-se-cupp-taste-fact-based-
What I admire most about SECupp is her smug delivery and her innate ability to not blink as she's schooled in facts, but she's smart enough not to open her pie hole again until the show ends. Other than that, she's conservative window dressing.
DeleteI thought S.E. Cupp was very shallow on The Cycle on MSNBC...definitely out of her league when compared to the other hosts. She'd spout her unfounded drivel and they tolerated her to be polite. I'm so glad she left MSNBC (or was fired). Now she's CNN's "conservative cutie". I find Abby Huntsman to be a great replacement...she's bright, polite and has a winning personality.
DeleteRock on Vermont!
ReplyDeleteThis is the real reason Republicans are scared to death of Obamacare and what to stop it before it gets started.
ReplyDeleteIt's the camel's nose to Universal Healthcare.
And once Obamacare is in place, the voters will NOT tolerate it being taken away. No more than they'll tolerate Social Security or Medicare being taken away.
Obamacare will eventually lead to Universal Healthcare.
This is what the national plan should have been.
ReplyDelete