Wednesday, April 29, 2015
By an 83-60 vote, the House voted against repeal.
“It’s our last chance to repeal the law this biennium. It’s certainly not our last chance to point out its flaws,” said Lynne Cleveland Vitzthum, who represents the Vermont Center for Independent Living.
Since the law took effect in May 2013, seven Vermonters have requested a lethal dose of medication. That's the only information that the state can publicly report on the law.
“It’s working in Vermont,” said Rep. Sandy Haas (P-Rochester). She cited stories told by friends and family of some of the patients as evidence.
Tags: Death with Dignity , end of life , physician assisted suicide , Vermont legislature , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
But when the late-session proposal came up for a vote Wednesday afternoon, his colleagues made quick work of it.
After less than an hour of discussion, the Senate voted 18 to 11 to scrap a provision that currently allows parents to opt their children out of mandatory vaccinations for purely philosophical reasons. If signed into law, the amendment would still allow children to attend public schools if they qualified for a medical or religious exemption.
Whether the House follows suit in the final weeks of the session remains unclear. Speaker Shap Smith (D-Morristown) and Rep. Bill Lippert (D-Hinesburg), who chairs the House Committee on Health Care, said Wednesday they have yet to decide how to proceed.
Tags: vaccination , philosophical exemption , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Asked at a Statehouse press conference what he would do if Vermont Health Connect still can't automatically process changes in users' account information by his self-established deadline of May 31, Shumlin responded, “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Pressed for a more specific answer, he said, “I’m going to find a high building.”
Tags: Peter Shumlin , suicide , mental health , Image , Web Only
Friday, March 27, 2015
How much should the state spend to improve access to health care? And how should it raise the money to pay for it?
Two House committees have been paralyzed over those questions for more than a week, while the window for passage begins to close.
Tags: health care , cost sharing , Vermont legislature , Janet Ancel , Bill Lippert , Shap Smith , Image , Web Only
Friday, March 20, 2015
But the governor expressed confidence that his administration — and contractor Optum — will get the job done.
"We think that we're going to deliver finally on an exchange that's going to work for Vermont," Shumlin said at an impromptu press conference Friday morning at the Statehouse. "If not, we want Vermonters to know what the contingency plan would be."
That plan would be to adopt what's known as a federally supported, state-based marketplace for those who buy private health insurance. Such hybrid systems — currently in use in Oregon, Nevada and New Mexico — make use of the federal exchange's web platforms and call centers, but allow states to retain control over which plans are offered.
Shumlin said he would only deploy the contingency plan if Vermont Health Connect is unable to automatically process changes in account information by May or if it's unable to smoothly reenroll users by October. Even then, the state would not adopt the new system until October 2016, in time for the 2017 open-enrollment period.
Tags: Vermont Health Connect , Peter Shumlin , federally supported state-based marketplace , Image , Web Only
Friday, March 13, 2015
Under a bill that won 9-0 approval late Friday, these folks would be allowed to buy their insurance directly from one of the companies selling exchange-compliant policies beginning next fall, when the enrollment period for 2016 opens. Vermont has two insurers in its health coverage market.
"I want to put this in play," Committee chair Bill Lippert (D-Hinesburg) said. He had the panel vote to meet the legislature's self-imposed crossover deadline. By Friday, bills needed to have emerged from committees to get consideration this session.
The administration of Gov. Peter Shumlin and insurance companies voiced support for the policy change.
"We are fine with the proposal," Susan Gretkowski, government affairs strategist for MVP Healthcare, told lawmakers Friday afternoon before their vote.
Tags: Vermont Health Connect , Bill Lippert , House Health Care Committee , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
“This is about the state saying, 'We think it’s OK for you to commit suicide,'" said Sen. Peg Flory (R-Rutland), who argued on the Senate floor for repealing the law. "I think it's a bad policy."
Sen. Claire Ayer (D-Addison) defended the law as something other than suicide. “I think that suicide and choosing to control the time and the manner of death when you’re already dying are completely different things," she said.
In 2013, the law was approved by a narrow margin after a lengthy and contentious debate. Opponents, who worry some people could be pressured into using the law to avoid becoming a burden, hope to repeal it this year. Their best chance appeared to be in the Senate, where the 2013 vote was closest.
“We thought we had a good shot,” said Guy Page, an opponent who represents the Vermont Alliance for Ethical Health Care. He said he’ll continue to seek repeal, or at least to delay a vote until next year in the House.
Tags: Death with Dignity , physician-assisted suicide , Vermont Senate , end-of-life , palliative care , Maggie Lake , Jason Saltman , Image , Web Only
When they left for Town Meeting Day recess nearly two weeks ago, members of the House Health Care Committee were debating whether to fund their policy priorities by taxing business payrolls or sugar-sweetened beverages.
On Wednesday, they coalesced around a new plan to do both — and to eliminate an existing tax on businesses that don’t provide health insurance to employees.
The hybrid revenue package, which won support from eight out of 10 members present for a straw vote, came together quickly Wednesday — and it could fall apart just as quickly. A formal vote is expected Thursday morning once the latest version of the bill is fully drafted.
"To be honest, until lunchtime I didn't have a proposal to put on the table," Chairman Bill Lippert (D-Hinesburg) said as he unveiled the package later that afternoon in a jam-packed committee room.
Tags: Vermont health care reform , sugar-sweetened beverage , payroll tax , Bill Lippert , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
What accounted for the sudden influx of out-of-state lawyers in Burlington today? That would be Vermont's controversial Act 120, the law passed last spring that requires manufacturers to disclose the presence of genetically-engineered ingredients in foods. Signed by Gov. Peter Shumlin in May, the GMO labeling law is set to go into effect on July 1, 2016. If the law stands, it would make Vermont the first state in the country to require labeling of GE foods. Vermont's law cites estimates that as much as 80 percent of processed foods sold in the United States contained GE ingredients.
Proponents knew a legal challenge to the law was all but guaranteed. It came in June, when four giants in the food industry — the Grocery Manufacturers Association, the Snack Food Association, the National Association of Manufacturers and the International Dairy Foods Association — filed suit against Shumlin, Sorrell and other state officials. The plaintiffs argue, among other things, that the labeling requirement is unconstitutional, violating the First Amendment by forcing companies to make statements they don't wish to make. The plaintiffs also argue that Vermont's law violates interstate commerce rules.
It will likely be months before Judge Christina Reiss either upholds or rejects those claims, but Wednesday's oral arguments — which focused on Vermont's motion to dismiss the case, and the plaintiffs' request for a temporary injunction barring the implementation of the law — could offer a window into some of the legal nuances that could shape Reiss's decision.
Tags: GMOs , genetic engineering , food , courts , Sorrell , vermont , Image , Web Only
Monday, January 5, 2015
Massachusetts, which mandates health insurance coverage, has the lowest percentage of uninsured.
Since the last state-sponsored survey, in 2012, the number of uninsured Vermonters declined from 42,760 to 23,231.
"I'm delighted with these numbers," Gov. Peter Shumlin said Monday at a news conference to trumpet the results of the Vermont Household Health Insurance Survey. He attributed much of the reduction to provisions of the federal Affordable Care Act, which Vermont implemented using its online health-insurance marketplace — Vermont Health Connect.
Tags: Health care , Peter Shumlin , Lawrence Miller , Image , Web Only