Single payer healthcare: Vermont's gentle revolution

Friday, May 27, 2011

Vermont is a land of first proud. This small New England state was the first to join the 13 colonies. Its constitution was the first to prohibit slavery. It was the first to establish the right to free education for all - public education.

This week, Vermont have another novelty: the first state in the nation to offer single-payer health care, eliminating costly insurance companies that many believe are the main cause of our health care costs spiral. In a single-payer system, health care providers both private and public are allowed to operate, as they have always done. But instead of the patient or the patient's private company health insurance pay the bill, the state does. It is basically Medicare for all - just lowering the eligibility age for the day we are born. The state, the purchase of such health services for the entire population, they can negotiate favorable rates, and can eliminate the huge overhead of the for-profit insurance companies impose.

Vermont hired Harvard economist William Hsiao to reach three alternatives to the current system. The single-payer system, Hsiao wrote, "will produce a saving of 24.3% of total health spending between 2015 and 2024." An analysis by Don McCann, MD, of Physicians for a National Health Program said:

"[T] hese plans cover everyone without any increase in spending since the efficiency of single-payer would be enough to pay for those currently uninsured or underinsured So here's the really good news -.. Single-payer works "

Governor of Vermont, Peter Shumlin explained his intention to sign the bill:

"Here is our challenge. Our premiums go up 10, 15, 20% a year. This is true in the rest of the country. They are killing small business. They are killing the middle class Americans, who have been kicked in the teeth in recent years. What our plan will do is create a group, get the benefits of insurance companies, the profits of pharmaceutical companies, others are mining the system to do a lot of money off of our illnesses, and ensure that we are using those dollars to make Vermont healthy. "

Speaking of firsts healthy, Vermont can become the first state of the shutter of a nuclear power plant. Vermont's legislature is the first to be granted the right to determine its nuclear future, to set environmental policy in the hands of the people.

Vermont Another first was the legalization of same-sex civil unions. Then the state is false and became the first legislature in the nation to legalize gay marriage. After being passed by the House and Senate of Vermont, former Gov. Jim Douglas vetoed the bill. The next day, April 7, 2009, the House of Representatives and the Senate overturned the governor's veto, so the Vermont Freedom to marry the Act the law of the land.

Vermont has become an incubator for innovative public policies. one of Canada's health system payer began as an experiment in one province, Saskatchewan. Was promoted in 1960 by the late Prime Minister of Saskatchewan, Tommy Douglas, considered by many to be the largest in Canada. It was such a success that was quickly adopted across Canada. (Douglas is the grandfather of actor Kiefer Sutherland.) Maybe the law of Vermont health care to start a similar transformation, national.

The anthropologist Margaret Mead famously said:

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. In fact, the only thing that ever has."

Just replace "group" with "State", and you have Vermont.

• Denis Moynihan contributed research for this column
Source:http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/may/25/healthcare-vermont