Unaffordable health care

Kevin Mullin, chair of Green Mountain Care Board, called our state's health insurance premiums "unaffordable" back in 2019. Those premiums have risen since then, and GMCB just approved double-digit-plus increases for Blue Cross and MVP, making health care far more unaffordable.

"Unaffordable" is a very abstract idea, but it produces very real harm to very large numbers of very real people in Vermont. The 2021 Vermont Household Health Insurance Survey indicates 38% of Vermonters under age 65 are underinsured, while 32.3% of those on Medicare are underinsured.

The Census Bureau publishes county data, which includes total population and the portion of it who are 65 and older. Applying those survey percentages to the Census Bureau's July 21, 2021, population estimates of each county, this is how many people are underinsured in each Vermont county: Addison, 13,694; Bennington, 13,674; Caledonia, 11,170; Chittenden, 62,609; Essex, 2,160; Franklin, 18,633; Grand Isle, 2,725 Lamoille, 9,657; Orange, 10,847; Orleans, 10,097; Rutland, 22,210; Washington, 22,077; Windham, 16,868; Windsor, 21,298; for all 14 counties: 237,719.

These are your friends and neighbors, praying nobody gets sick, opting for higher deductibles to get lower premiums, struggling to pay cash until the deductible is met, sinking into debt. You can read some of their stories here: www.vtmedicaldebt.org online.

These are the constituents of our legislators and our governor. How can they allow this to go on? Courage is apparently harder to find than misery.

Lee Russ

Bennington