Vermont goes to work on the nitty gritty of implementing single payer

[cali]

We better get that damned waiver. This is a long, detailed article. (I have permission to post what I want from vtdigger.)

<snip>

Now, Shumlin and his team are beginning to shift gears, planning the implementation of a publicly funded, universal health care system. In the past two months, the administration has moved two of its policy heavyweights to the fifth floor Office of Health Care Reform — right around the corner from where the governor sits.

<snip>

David Reynolds, a co-architect of the Affordable Care Act and a former health policy adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders, joined the team in July. He is tasked with bringing the moving parts of a single payer system together.

<snip>

Act 48 is explicit: Green Mountain Care would provide “affordable, high-quality, publicly financed health care coverage for all Vermont residents.”

<snip>

Reynolds left Northern Counties Health Care Inc. in 2007 to become U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ senior policy adviser for health. When he said goodbye to Northern Counties, the network included six federally qualified health centers, two dental clinics and a home health and hospice division.

Working with Sanders, he pushed for progressive policies in Washington.

“David was the lead negotiator, researcher, and drafter of legislation to advance the senator’s priorities in health care,” Sanders’ spokesman Jeff Frank said. “He was involved in the drafting of the first national single payer bill introduced in the United States Senate.”

Reynolds says that one of his token achievements in Washington was helping to negotiate the creation of the 2017 waiver in the Affordable Care Act — the very waiver that would allow Vermont to deviate from the law to set up a single payer system.

“When the president gave up on not proposing single payer or a public option, that (waiver) was a compromise to get the votes of the more liberal members,” he said. “I call the Affordable Care Act the ‘private health insurance preservation act.’”

In 2011, he returned to Vermont to work on implementing Act 48.

“Having come from the dysfunctionality of Congress, working for Bernie Sanders, this is just remarkable to see,” he said. “People are really dedicated to this task.”


- See more at: http://vtdigger.org/2013/07/29/shumlin-administration-gearing-up-for-the-nitty-gritty-of-single-payer/#sthash.eFqnFHpY.dpuf

[DirkGently]

1. Hope they make this work. Could have a huge impact everywhere.

[cali]

2. the big thing is getting that waiver but that doesn't happen

until 2017. and we really need it.

[PoliticAverse]

4. And 2017 is after the next presidential election. n/t

[cali]

5. I'm counting on the determination of both politicians

and the people. there's big support for single payer in the state.

[leftstreet]

3. "private health insurance preservation act"

Yeah, no kidding

DURec
Long article but worth the read

[flamingdem]

6. Thanks Cali

I'm extremely interested in how they work this out.

[dkf]

7. Yay Vermont!!!

Maybe we will see what a successful program looks like when it isn't a prototype of Mitt Romney's plan.

[riverbendviewgal]

8. I love my one payer up here

I did not go bankrupt when my always healthy all their lives, suddenly struck with cancer, husband and son diagnosed two months apart with cancer. They got the best treatments, nothing held back. There were no medical bills to bankrupt me.

Wishing you all lots of success in the ACA.

[cali]

9. I hope for the best with the ACA too, but Vermont's law is quite different from that

[Bunnahabhain]

10. Could not agree with Reynolds more

that the ACA is merely the "private health insurance preservation act." Been saying that for years now that the ACA only entrenches the current, fatally flawed system more.

Good luck to Vermont!

[ProSense]

11. Remember Section 1332 of the health care law

Remember Section 1332 of the health care law
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023372091#post15

[cali]

12. Yep, and the credit goes to Sanders and Vermont

The President agreed to it. Reynolds wrote it and Sanders put it in the ACA.

[maced666]

13. Yea. It didn't make it.

Fail.