(Host) A House committee is set to finish work this week on legislation designed to expand health care coverage provided by the state.
The changes represent incremental steps to increase the number of people covered by state plans like the new Catamount Health, without requiring additional revenue.
Catamount Health is designed to cover Vermonters who earn below 300 percent of poverty, who can’t afford private insurance and don’t qualify for other programs like Medicaid.
Middlebury Democrat Steve Maier chairs the House Committee on Health Care. Speaking Monday on VPR’s Vermont Edition, Maier said one key change the committee wants to make won’t be possible because of federal rules.
Right now, a person generally has to be uninsured for one year before becoming eligible for Catamount Health. Maier says his committee would like to shorten that waiting period.
(Maier) "We’ve heard a lot from people who would like us to change that or reduce that. The problem with that is we’ve become convinced that that requires the approval of the federal government. We don’t believe that is likely to be forthcoming in the current federal administration. I think we’re likely to say as a matter of policy we support moving to six months as soon as we can get approval from the federal government."
(Host) Maier says in the past six months 5,000 people have signed up for state health insurance plans.
The goal is to enroll about 20,000 Vermonters over the next several years.