Health Care Reform Passes...
Two Year Trial Approved
Tuesday May 16, 2006
By Mike Cameron
A piece of Vermont history was made on Wednesday evening 5-10-06 at the eleventh hour, when lawmakers approved a hotly debated health care reform bill in the Vermont Senate by a vote of 25-2. The bill was previously approved by the House of Representatives in the final minutes of the 2006 session will now include provisions for the establishment of an entity called “Catamount Health”. In effect, the landmark legislation will now allow private insurance companies to offer 30,000 uninsured Vermonters health insurance coverage. Lawmakers on both sides of the argument appear to have found some common ground at least for the next two years. The Douglas administration has insisted all along that private enterprise provide the coverage, and that he would veto any legislation that would further burden Vermont taxpayers. Under the leadership of Senator James Leddy, Chair of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, a plan was eventually crafted and refined that gained a steady stream of bi-partisan support in the State Senate as the session drew to a close. In a recent telephone interview, Addison County State Senator Harold Giard explained just how difficult the process was. “Both Senator Claire Ayer and I have a great deal of respect for Jim Leddy and what he has been able to achieve with his committee on health care. Locally, Representative Steve Mayer has also done an excellent job with his work on health care in the House Health and Welfare Committee. Bringing the two sides together by the end of the session is a terrific accomplishment,” Giard explained. Catamount Health was designed to provide affordable coverage to the uninsured, and reduce premiums for Vermonters who are covered but are paying too much and not burden Vermont taxpayers. The plan as originally designed would, for example, reduce the amount a family of four pays for insurance premiums by almost $1,400.00. The plan would also provide a sliding fee scale subsidy for families of four making less than $60.000.00 per year or on individuals making less than $30,000.00 per year. With Catamount Health an individual making $25,000.00 or less without insurance would be able to purchase health insurance coverage for $125.00 per month according to Senate Health and Welfare Committee statistics. The Douglas Administration remained adamant that private insurance carriers should be the coverage providers for Catamount Health to Vermonters. Some legislators insisted on a fall-back plan to deal with cases where the private provider might decide not to participate in the plan for one reason or other. The administration offered a compromise in which state regulators are authorized to require private insurers to offer the Catamount Health plan. If providers decided not to offer it voluntarily, the Vermont Department of Banking and Insurance has the authority to enforce compliance. Lawmakers have agreed to give the program a two year trial period and have built in several incentives in the Catamount Health plan that they say will make it easier for health insurance companies to do business in Vermont. A score of health insurance companies have left Vermont in the past, citing severe financial and regulatory pressures as the main reasons for their departure. The Vermont State Commission on Health Care Reform will review and make recommendations on the plan in 2009. Senator Giard who has served in both the House and Senate when he went to Montpelier in 1973 was particularly impressed with the by-partisan Senate vote that will finally bring affordable health care to uninsured Vermonters. “It was an extraordinary session. We were able to pass health care reform for the state and we were able to bring some very significant funding back home to help pay for many important Addison County projects. It was a good year.” It is also important to note that State Senator Jim Leddy, arguably the most outspoken and articulate spokesperson for affordable health care in Vermont announced on Wednesday 5-10-06 that he will not be back in Montpelier for another term in 2007. Giard has observed and worked closely with Leddy on numerous occasions. “His compassion and leadership style go hand in hand even though I served on Agriculture, Institutions, and Government Operations, one could not help but be impressed with this man’s leadership style,” he said. The Douglas administration’s decision to help provide solutions for a compromise was also a key to the passage of this monumental piece of legislation. The Governor’s own leadership ability and his track record for achieving a consensus on complex issues seems to have passed yet another test, at least for the short term. The majority of House Republicans however did not find the Health Care Reform package to be in the best interest of all Vermonters, especially those who own and operate businesses vital to the state’s economy. “This is a false promise,” explains Addison County State Representative Connie Houston, a senior House Republican. “We were never given concise, current, actuarial information that accurately reflected the true economic impact of Catamount Health. For me the cost shift question is still there unanswered. Plans like this are easy to create but they are almost impossible to stop. I couldn’t vote for it in the House and most House Republicans felt the same way. The numbers are just not there over the long haul,” Houston said. Addison County Representative Harvey Smith also a Republican used a bit of his dry Vermont humor to explain how he voted. “I voted against H-61 when it came up in the House but I did vote in favor of the the Governor’s compromise proposal. What we have here is a bad bill that has been made a little less bad,” he said. Both Houston and Smith share a common belief with others who remain suspicious of CHC. They believe that Catamount Health Care will not pan-out as an economically viable solution to provide uninsured Vermonters with health care over the two year trial period. Proponents of the landmark legislation felt that the time was right, that this was the right bill and further delay was unnecessary. Their view was that uninsured Vermonters have suffered long enough. In the meantime, the long process of providing health insurance for the uninsured and underinsured in Vermont has taken a giant leap forward for those who support the legislation. Those opposed see it as a step in the wrong direction. During the next two years both sides will have a chance to prove their position once and for all.
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