(HOST) The chairman of the special House committee on Health Care says it’s critical to make major reforms to the state’s health care system if all Vermonters are going to have access to health care and if costs are to be contained in the future. The legislation sets up a framework for universal access by imposing a yet-to-be determined public financing system and by consolidating a number of existing state health care oversight agencies.
Speaking last night on VPR’s Switchboard program, Burlington Representative, John Tracy, said legislation drafted by his committee creates, for the first time, a unified health care system for the state of Vermont.
(Tracy) “And we have a fragmented delivery system of health care in Vermont. You know it’s been added to over the years. And again, it’s not for a lack of dedication and people who work hard and want to provide care. But it is not a system. And because of that, there are an increasing number of inefficiencies. You know it’s hard to do a good job with a bad system. It’s hard to do a bad job with a good system. We feel we need to put a system in place.”
(HOST) House Minority whip David Sunderland opposes the bill. He says the legislation leaves too many questions unanswered while charting the state on the wrong path of reform
(Sunderland) “We don’t need to pass a bill and certainly don’t need to pass this bill in order to have a conversation with Vermonters about what the problems are, and what their ideas are for a solution. This bill puts us on an irreversible course towards a two-billion-dollar, single-payer government run taxpayer funded health care rationing scheme. That’s what this bill does.”
(HOST) The House will extensively debate the legislation for the next two days.