Posted on 03/18/2014 11:20:56 PM PDT by Kaslin
In 2011, Vermont passed the nation's first single-payer healthcare system, "Green Mountain Care." While the law was supposed to be fully enacted by 2017, it has become apparent that there's no solid plan in place to actually pay for the healthcare of all Vermont residents. Democratic lawmakers, citing missed deadlines and past failures, have begun to call for Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin to "shelve" the plan.
“The deadlines for proposing financing have been missed two years in a row now, so to me that’s very disappointing. It’s becoming clearer and clearer that there is no financing plan,” Condon told Vermont Watchdog.
The cost of one year of Green Mountain Care is estimated to be anywhere from 1.6 to 2.2 billion dollars. This is equal to the entire tax revenue of the state of Vermont.
Sen. Bobby Starr, another Democrat who voted against Act 48, told Vermont Watchdog in January there’s “no way” single-payer can work without new taxes. Indeed, no lawmaker has introduced any bill that would finance single-payer health care without also raising taxes.
It's foolish for Vermont to even entertain the thought of a single-payer system when its attempt at implementing an Obamacare exchange didn't go so well. Green Mountain Care is way too expensive for the state, and raising taxes is going to make an already business-unfriendly state even worse.
I hope they cc'd Obama on this ...
The only rational plan is to hope for spare change.
This is why the tenth amendment is so important. Let the states experiment. If they fail, it isn’t as big of a deal.
Didn’t see that coming...
Vermont was a very conservative state, not having voted for a democRAT since Lincoln.
Then it was overrun by trust fund hippies that are far more dangerous to a culture than invading Russians in Crimea are.
The "peaceful", stupid lefties have destroyed Vermont.
The communists that have invaded Vermont and taken it over are no different than some of the factions in Ukraine.
Any short-term success they claim is the result of looting the treasury. Once they run out of other people's money, their systems collapse.
You mean there’s no magic healthcare fairy after all?
I wonder if those RATS are exempt as well.
I’ve visited/vacationed in VT in the past; as I understand it once the cities were hijacked they controlled the state.
“Any short-term success they claim is the result of looting the treasury. Once they run out of other people’s money, their systems collapse.”
Thankfully here in NJ we’ve already reached the point of running out of money; we’ve begun downsizing our bloated public sector to compensate. The cities are paying a steep price, as they haven’t been self-sufficient in decades; they no longer simply rape the suburban and rural taxpayers as they had in the past. Things are falling apart, but that is necessary to start over (hopefully it isn’t already too late). The high costs here were tolerated because the high wages made it acceptable, but many of those good jobs have left permanently - not just to other states, but many to other countries altogether.
That's unexpected. Who would have guessed that covering 1/6 of the economy would require a massive tax increase?
So, at a minimum, it would cost the entire state budget and we all know it will cost a lot more than planned
Tyranny at the state level is still tyranny
The Democratic party is the party of the mathematically challenged.
When will Vermont natives wake up and vote moderate, not socialist. Vermont is nice, but the hippies ruined Vermont.
Its simple:
If its not free, no one is going to sign up.
Without that, single payer is akin to wishing for unicorns and the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Why should it be free?
That is why even states need a federal system that protects the bulk of the state from the stupidity of the cities.
Say What?
You mean Cal and Vt can spend to bankruptcy and the rest of the 57 states will be obliged to use our dollars to bail them out?
“states need a federal system that protects the bulk of the state from the stupidity of the cities”
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