(Host) An effort in the legislature to make health care affordable for all Vermonters has taken a big step forward.
The Joint Fiscal Committee has picked a consultant who will design three different approaches for health care reform.
VPR’s Bob Kinzel reports.
(Kinzel) At the end of session, lawmakers gave their approval to a bill that allocates $300,000 for a consultant to comprehensively review the state’s health care system.
William Hsaio, a Public Health professor at Harvard, has been chosen to lead the project. Recently, he played a key role redesigning the health care system in Taiwan.
The job is not another health care study. Instead, Hsaio is being asked to draft specific plans to implement three different health care models. One is a single payer, the second includes a public option, and the third is a private system.
Middlebury Rep. Steve Maier co chairs the state’s Health Care Reform Commission.
(Maier) "I am excited about this work because I think it is a kind of systemic, whole look at the whole system here, so that we can put something on the ground that makes sense – is rational and efficient as a whole system and not just pieces of it."
(Kinzel) Caledonia senator Jane Kitchel is the other co-chair of the commission. She says it’s critical for this project to include a strong plan to contain health care costs because Vermont’s costs are now rising faster than the national average:
(Kitchel) "We’ve got some trends that really are indicative that this is an area that needs to be dealt with. And we know coverage and costs – if you can’t control your costs, that competes with your ability to fund and finance the coverage side."
(Kinzel) Kitchel says the final report will also include a thorough political assessment of the recommended changes:
(Kitchel) "You can do planning, you can do analysis. But if you don’t really look at that political environment and the impacts on different segments of population sometimes you spend a lot of time and a lot of energy and it comes to sort of a brick wall."
(Kinzel) Rep. Maier says he expects the Health Care Reform Commission will hold a series of public hearings on the final recommendations before lawmakers vote on this issue during the 2011 session:
(Maier) "I think the truth is that as this goes forward it’s going to become clear that the impacts of change in health care as we all know are going to be felt in different ways by different people. So I think those things need to be as transparent and open as possible as the process goes forward so that everyone can see it, understand it and debate it."
(Kinzel) The final report will be delivered to lawmakers next February.
For VPR News, I’m Bob Kinzel in Montpelier.