Letter to the Editor: Will new legislators have the courage to tackle health care? disaster?

Imagine a group of people watching a house burn. They are gathered around a fire hydrant and a hose is coiled at their feet. As the house burns, the people discuss how they might make it rain to put the fire out. Maybe prayer would work? Maybe a rain dance? Maybe seeding the clouds? The house continues to burn.

Absurd, right? But a pretty good analogy to the current healthcare nightmare and our reaction to it. In the political debates preceding the November election in Vermont, the subject of healthcare was mostly missing. That's pretty odd, given how prominent that subject has been in the state's media, chronicling doctor shortages, lengthy wait times to see a doctor and, of course, the ever growing cost of healthcare. Consider the silence the equivalent of praying for rain to put the fire out.

Healthcare is a necessity, not some consumer product that people can do without if they don't like the price. The industry can charge pretty much any price it wants.

The cost of health insurance is rising considerably faster than incomes, prompting the Chair of the regulatory body to call the rates: unaffordable." [https://vtdigger.org/2019/08/08/insurance-rate-increases-approved-12-4-for-bcbs-10-1-for-mvp/] There are reportedly "around 30,000 Vermonters with medical debt in collections and tens of thousands more who are paying down medical bills that have not reached collections." [https://www.wcax.com/2022/04/19/why-vermonters-carry-less-medical-debt/]

The only solution offered to date by the Vermont executive and legislative bodies is another vulture, the "accountable care organization" OneCare, which dines on taxpayer dollars without providing or improving care in any way. At the recent GMCB hearing on OneCare's budget, a GMCB member remarked that he was looking for evidence that OneCare was producing outcomes "that matter to patients," but "I can't find them."

There has been a large turnover in VT's legislature. Dare we hope that new legislators will finally have the courage and sense to finally notice the fire hydrant? Perhaps to even discuss solutions like a publicly funded universal care plan?

Lee Russ