Reply #15: So the average is 10.22 overall [View All]

[dpbrown]

And Dean became Governor when Governor Snelling died of a heart attack on August 14, 1991. Dean declined to run in 2002 (his re-elect numbers had consistently declined), and his Lt. Governor, Doug Racine, lost to Republican Jim Douglas. Vermont is now governed by a Republican.

If you just take the years that Robert Snelling was Governor, the average is 10.3 (including 1991 because Snelling and Dean split that year).

If you just take the years Dean was Governor, the average jumps to 10.41 (including 1991 because Snelling and Dean split that year).

So it would seem that the only argument in favor of Dean's having gotten the uninsured numbers down compared to previous administrations would be to argue that the numbers are unreliable. Otherwise, even though all the peaks included in this sample (12.7 in 1991, 11 in 1993, 13 in 1995, 11 in 1996, and 11.1 in 1999) occurred under Governor Howard Dean, as long as the numbers are unreliable the Dean folks can still claim that Dean has some inherent believability regarding what to do about health care.

Heaven forbid the "doctor" join with the more than 8000 other doctors in calling for common sense 100% coverage (not 91.4% - the highest achieved under Dean) through federal single-payer instead of just throwing more money at a broken system and cutting other social spending to do it - risking being labelled a "tax and spend" Democrat.

No, these numbers don't show any dramatic changes for health care coverage under Dean, and maybe that's the greater story - he didn't really make things any better for health care for Vermonters after all.

Dan Brown
Saint Paul, Minnesota