As the Vermont Senate prepares this coming week to debate major health care legislation, a fight may be emerging over what conditions must be met before the state moves to a single-payer plan.
One Senate committee added conditions that the Green Mountain Care Board, which is to design the new health care program, can’t go forward unless it can be shown it will do no harm to the Vermont economy.
One single-payer advocate testified on Friday that one employer’s threat to leave the state could kill the move to a single-payer system, under that provision.
The Senate is expected to pass the bill, and then differences with the House-passed version will be worked out in a conference committee.