cmonfils | February 3, 2012
Vermont lawmakers are taking steps to move the state toward a publicly-financed insurance program and craft a state health exchange, which is required by the 2010 federal health law and which state officials hope to use as the groundwork for their eventual move to a unique single-payer system.
cmonfils | November 7, 2011
At a time when states are struggling to comply with the provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Vermont’s ambitious plan to create the nation’s first single-payer health financing system might be hard to comprehend. Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin sees this initiative as common sense. I recently had a chance to talk with Shumlin, an experienced legislator and small business owner, about why he thinks such radical change in health care is a necessity. An edited transcript follows.
cmonfils | October 26, 2011
from Spencer’s Benefits Reports: For the last few years, states have been leading the way toward more comprehensive health care coverage to ensure that more people have or can obtain health insurance. With the passage of federal health care reform, states will have increasing responsibilities in regard to employer-provided health insurance benefits. Spencer’s Benefits Reports continues to provide regular updates about state health care reform.
cmonfils | October 17, 2011
www.myhealthguide.com
MyHealthGuide Source: Vermont Captive, 10/14/2011,
Montpelier, VT — The new federal Nonadmitted and Reinsurance Reform Act (NRRA), often referred to as the Dodd Frank Act, has no applicability to captive insurance. That is the conclusion of an independent white paper prepared for the Vermont Captive Insurance Association (VCIA) by the law firm of McIntyre and Lemon, PLLC of Washington, DC. (more…)
cmonfils | October 6, 2011
Starting now, Vermont begins building a single-payer health system that will move many state residents into a publicly financed insurance program and pay hospitals, doctors and other providers a set fee to care for patients. (more…)
cmonfils | September 19, 2011
CCH® BENEFITS — 09/01/11
from Spencer’s Benefits Reports: According to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s State Health Facts, 23 states have established American Health Benefit Exchanges under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), have enacted legislation with the intent to establish an Exchange, or have Exchange legislation pending.
Massachusetts and Vermont have established Exchanges, while California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia have enacted legislation to establish an Exchange. Hawaii’s Exchange will be a nonprofit, Vermont Exchange will be operated by the state. The rest of the Exchanges will be quasi-governmental.
The Exchange will be a clearinghouse and contract with all qualified health plans in Colorado and Hawaii. In California, Connecticut, Oregon, and Vermont, the Exchange will be an active purchaser contracting with selected health plans and/or negotiating premium prices with health plans. The other states have not yet decided the type of Exchange they will operate.
In Illinois, Indiana (by executive order of the governor), North Dakota, and Virginia, legislation has established the intent to set up an Exchange, while Alabama (by executive order of the governor), Georgia (by executive order of the governor), Mississippi, and Wyoming will study the feasilibility of an Exchange.
The District of Columbia, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania have Exchange legislation pending.
For more information, visit http://statehealthfacts.kff.org/comparemaptable.jsp?ind=962&cat=17.
Rate Review Programs
The federal government will either conduct or assist health insurance rate reviews in nine states, according to the most recent fact sheet from the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO), which discusses the rate review requirements included in the ACA.
According to the CCIIO, as of Aug. 15, 2011, state rate review procedures were as follows:
43 states, the District of Columbia, and one U.S. territory have effective rate review in at least one insurance market;
41 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have effective review for all insurance markets and issuers.
In two states (Virginia, Pennsylvania), the federal government will partner with the state to conduct reviews; and
The federal government will conduct reviews in seven states (Wyoming, Montana, Missouri, Louisiana, Idaho, Arizona, and Alabama) and four U.S. territories (American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas Islands, and Puerto Rico) until those areas are able to strengthen their review processes and authorities.
Starting Sept. 1, 2011, insurers seeking rate increases of 10% or more for non-grandfathered plans in the individual and small group markets are required to publicly disclose the proposed increases and the justification for them.
For more information, visit http://cciio.cms.gov/resources/factsheets/rate_review_fact_sheet.html.
cmonfils | August 30, 2011
MyHealthGuide Source: David Slaughter, Thompson Publishing, 8/26/2011, http://smarthr.blogs.thompson.com/
Todd Leeuwenburgh, Editor, Employer Health Benefits, Thompson Publishing Group, says, “David Slaughter’s Blog reports an interesting and unprecedented use of ERISA (not HIPAA) by Liberty Mutual to resist Vermont’s health claims data-reporting mandate. The state agency’s top attorney tells David in an exclusive interview that it is backing down from its initial demand for claims data about the company’s ERISA plan participants.” (more…)
cmonfils | June 1, 2011
www.modernhealthcare.com Jaimy Lee May 30, 2011
Vermont is officially on a path toward creating the nation’s first statewide publicly funded single-payer system.
Last week, Gov. Peter Shumlin signed the widely watched legislation, which still faces a number of challenges, including whether the federal government will grant waivers Vermont needs to implement a single-payer system earlier than 2017, and how the system—called Green Mountain Care—will be funded (May 16, p. 6). (more…)
cmonfils | May 31, 2011
CCH® BENEFITS — 05/25/11
Vermont. The legislature has passed legislation that would lead to a single payer system in the state.
cmonfils | May 26, 2011
www.nytimes.com ABBY GOODNOUGH Published: May 21, 2011
MONTPELIER, Vt. — Many people move to Vermont in search of a slower pace; Dr. Deb Richter came in 1999 to work obsessively toward a far-fetched goal.
She wanted Vermont to become the first state to adopt a single-payer health care system, run and paid for by the government, with every resident eligible for a uniform benefit package. So Dr. Richter, a buoyant primary care doctor from Buffalo who had given up on New York’s embracing such a system, started lining up speaking engagements and meeting with lawmakers, whom she found more accessible than their New York counterparts. (more…)
cmonfils | May 16, 2011
www.news.firedoglake.com By: David Dayen Thursday May 5, 2011
The Vermont State House wrapped up work on a bill that would bring universal health care to the state, approving the final version and sending it to Governor Peter Shumlin for his signature. Shumlin plans to sign the bill within the next two weeks. The vote today was 94-49. (more…)
cmonfils | April 8, 2011
www.hr.cch.com CCH® BENEFITS — 04/04/11
from Spencer’s Benefits Reports: For the last few years, states have been leading the way toward more comprehensive health care coverage to ensure that more people have or can obtain health insurance. With the passage of federal health care reform, states will have increasing responsibilities in regard to employer-provided health insurance benefits. Spencer’s Benefits Reports continues to provide regular updates about state health care reform. (more…)
cmonfils | February 18, 2011
By Nancy Remsen, Free Press Staff • Tuesday, February 8, 2011
MONTPELIER — The woman who Gov. Peter Shumlin hired to guide his health reform effort presented lawmakers Tuesday with the administration’s roadmap — an 80-page bill — leading to a consolidated, publicly financed system that would provide medical coverage to all Vermonters.
“We don’t think we have all the answers, but we think we are putting in front of you a solid proposal for moving forward with major, meaningful health reform,” Anya Rader Wallack, Shumlin’s special assistant on health reform, told members of House Health Care and Senate Health and Welfare committees. “We know you will find ways to change and improve it.” (more…)
cmonfils | February 18, 2011
By Aimee Miles Feb 08, 2011
Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, who was elected last November after promising to reform health care in the state, unveiled a bill Tuesday that would abolish most forms of private health insurance and move state residents into a publicly funded insurance pool.
His much anticipated proposal lays out a strategy that leaves a number of key details—including how to pay for the system—open for debate. (more…)
cmonfils | January 12, 2011
January 2, 2011
While Massachusetts grapples with its own health costs, the nation’s eyes will be on Vermont as it tries to do ObamaCare one better and switch to a single-payer health insurance system. The newly elected governor, Peter Shumlin, made single-payer a main campaign pledge. Now he has assembled a team of health officials grounded both in the realities of Vermont medical care and the pros and cons of comprehensive health reform. Shumlin’s special assistant for reform will be Anya Rader-Wallack, once an aide to former Vermont Governor Howard Dean and more recently deeply involved with the Massachusetts universal-coverage system.
Single payer, under which the government would take over all health insurance functions, has attracted many reform advocates because it simplifies health payments and reduces the overhead costs of a private insurance system that has to pay for marketing and, in some cases, shareholders’ dividends. Single-payer would also unlink insurance from employment, reducing a costly burden on companies and increasing workers’ flexibility in seeking new job opportunities. Hospitals and doctors have been wary of single-payer because two of the biggest payers in the current system — government-run Medicare and Medicaid — reimburse at rates that providers say are inadequate.
Any reform plan in Vermont will have to address that concern. More immediately, it will need waivers from the federal government to bring both Medicare and Medicaid into the one-payer system. The Obama administration should examine waiver requests closely to make sure they protect the needs of both patients and providers. But Vermont deserves the benefit of the doubt as it works its way toward becoming a laboratory of democracy on an issue — the unsustainably steep increase in health costs — that has proven intractable both for the nation at large and health-reform pioneer Massachusetts.
© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.
