Archive for the ‘Health Care Reform’ Category

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Vermont Reform: A Giant Step by a Small State

June 13, 2011
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Has Vermont carved a path toward single payer health care or caved into powerful insurance company lobbies?

Maybe just a little bit of both.

Has Vermont drawn a new line in the sand for health care reform or outlined a sketchy drawing towards the future?

Yes to that as well.

On May 27th, 2011 Governor Peter Shumlin fulfilled a campaign promise to move the state toward a single payer health care system when he signed H-202.

As the saying goes, you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.  In this case, the analogy works pretty well.

H-202 outlines a path that takes features from current state and federal realities and blends it with recipes offered by the federal health care reform to take Vermont where previous federal and state lawmakers have feared to tread. Continue reading ‘Vermont Reform: A Giant Step by a Small State’

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Health Care Reform, Health Insurance Exchanges, Single payer and State Healthcare Reform Initiatives-- Tags: , , , .

Vermont Enacts Single Payer Health Care Reform

June 3, 2011
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An historic event occurred on May 26th 2011.

The New York Times noted it with a single paragraph.

On that date, Vermont Governor, Peter Shumlin, “launch(ed) the first single payer health care system in the United States” by signing into law H-202 passed by the Vermont legislature just days earlier.

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ACA paves the way

The Vermont law could only be possible in the wake of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) signed by President Obama 14 months earlier.

That point may be missed by those who criticize the ACA as meaningless and the Vermont bill for falling short of the single payer ideal.  Yet the ACA paved the way for the Vermont initiative in several ways. Continue reading ‘Vermont Enacts Single Payer Health Care Reform’

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Health Care Reform--

Medicare, Paul Ryan, Lies, and Health Care Reform

May 26, 2011
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Americans are not stupid;  at least not the 48% of Americans living in New York’s 26th Congressional District.  Polls show that the victory by Democratic candidate, Kathy Hochul, in this traditionally conservative district was a reaction against the Republican budget proposal approved by most House Republicans and calling for a radical transformation of Medicare.

Paul Ryan, the Budget Committee Chairman who concocted this most recent Republican idea to kill Medicare,  would have you believe that his plan would not hurt seniors, his plan to to end Medicare as we know it would not hurt seniors.

He thinks people who are 54 years old – the first ones who will fall under Ryan’s plan -aren’t thinking about needing Medicare.

He thinks those older than 54 won’t feel threatened by his voucher plan idea.

He thinks people will somehow fall for this “kick-the-can-down-the-road” ploy.

What goes around …

There is some delicious satisfaction to watching Republicans squirm as Democrats accuse them of “ending Medicare as we know it.” Continue reading ‘Medicare, Paul Ryan, Lies, and Health Care Reform’

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Will KISS apply to ACA?

May 17, 2011
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Will health care reform adhere to the KISS principle – Keep It Simple, Stupid?

Will it make health care simpler?

Is Mount Everest higher than K2?

Is the Sears Tower in Chicago taller than the Empire State Building in New York City?

Is Bill Gates richer than Warren Buffet?

It is relative.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) will eliminate medical underwriting.  That will make life simpler for those with pre-existing medical conditions.

Health care reform will also create state health insurance exchanges.  That will make it simpler for some people to shop for individual and small group health insurance policies.

But for many Americans, health care will still present some daunting choices.  And policy makers are already trying to get ahead of that process. Continue reading ‘Will KISS apply to ACA?’

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Romney Stands by Massachusetts Health Care Reform

May 12, 2011
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Mitt Romney not backing away from the health care reform law that he pushed forward in Massachusetts.

In a speech he delivered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the state where his father had been governor, the presidential aspirant went on to say that what was right for Massachusetts is not necessarily right for the rest of the country.

He then proceeded to trot out the tired Republican formulas for health care reform:  block grants to states, selling insurance across state borders, medical liability reform, and shifting more costs onto individuals.

I would have offered a different response for Mr. Romney.

The federal law on employee benefits, ERISA, ties the hands of states who want to expand health care coverage.  It’s called the ERISA preemption.  We came up with a solution that ducks the federal preemption.  It works in Massachusetts because Massachusetts has a high rate of unionization, a high rate of income and a very low rate of uninsured.  That is not a solution that could work in states like Texas or Mississippi that have none of those. Continue reading ‘Romney Stands by Massachusetts Health Care Reform’

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