Editor’s note: We had to pull the video footage that was originally posted. The audio for the Sony mini-cam we’ve been using no longer functions. And so we discovered early this morning that the videotape had become a silent film. Not so useful. We apologize for the inconvenience. If you’d like to contribute to our video camera replacement fund (we’ve raised $500 out of the $1,000 needed) please hit the donate button and contribute via Paypal or send a check made out to the Vermont Journalism Trust, c/o Anne Galloway, PO Box 2, E. Hardwick VT 05836.
It’s official. The Vermont House passed H.202, the landmark universal health care bill on third reading Thursday. The vote, 90-49, was along party lines, and so was the running set of arguments that occupied a second day of interrogations, amendments, roll call votes and speeches.
The Republicans in the House are on record: There is nothing about H.202 they could learn to love. The GOP oratory, delivered with decorum, was a let-me-count-the-ways-we-hate-it recitation. After grilling Rep. Mark Larson, D-Burlington, the chair of the House Health Care Committee, for 15 hours, Republican members wrapped up their protest of the bill with a member by member explanation of each vote cast against it.
In a repeat performance of the night before, the GOP members, who didn’t have the numbers to scuttle the bill, made their displeasure known to the rest of the body over the course about 15 hours of House debate.
Indeed, the only point on which the right and left agreed regarding this issue is the indisputable fact that health care costs are rising too quickly, at a rate of $1 million a day.
As it became clear that the speechifying and inquisition was nearing an end, the two parties held dueling press conferences. The Dems declared victory; the GOP demanded that self-insured employers in Vermont be exempted from participation in the universal health care bill.
House Speaker Shap Smith called the legislation a “bold step forward” and praised both sides for carrying on a civil and substantive debate. The tenor of the discussion on the House floor, he said, is a “testament to the way we do things in Vermont.
“This bill puts us on a path to meet the challenge (of creating) a structure for cost containment, for putting together a universal plan and puts us on a path when we have a benefit package we can be sure to pay for it,” Smith said.
Larson, who was heralded by the Dems for his leadership on the issue, said the bill would enable the state to “tackle a problem that has nagged us for decades.”
As for the GOP’s criticism that the bill is “an empty shell” and that it raises more questions than it answers, Larson said in reference to the extensive questioning over the last two days: “I’m not sure there are questions that haven’t been answered several times.”
The bill now goes to the Senate.
Senate President Pro Tem John Campbell declared the senators will “do due diligence” and will ensure that medical coverage is extended to all Vermonters. He described the bill as the first step toward building a sustainable health care system.
As for the criticism leveled by Republicans that the legislation has been created in haste, Campbell declared: “We are not moving too fast.”
In a press conference, Rep. Oliver Olsen, R-Jamaica, told reporters that the new bill creates uncertainty for business, particularly large self-insured entities that he said would have to pay twice under the new bill. Olsen said the companies would be obliged, as proposed in the Hsiao plan, to pay a payroll tax, in addition to maintaining insurance benefits their workers expect. This is the crux of the “uncertainty” businesses are concerned about, he said.
“One thing we’ve heard about our fragile recession is that uncertainty delays hiring,” Olsen said. “This bill creates great uncertainty, particularly for the 106,000 Vermonters who are part of self-insured plans.”
Olsen said the state’s biggest employers – IBM, General Electric, General Dynamics – have made it clear that the “uncertainty” in this bill will be a great risk to their employees.
“We call on the governor and legislative leaders to promise these employers they will not have to pay for a system they will not use,” Olsen said.
Rep. Anne Donahue, R-Northfield, said her party had offered many amendments that were rejected by the Democratic majority. “Unlike Congress, I hoped to see (us) working together,” Donahue said.
Donahue is concerned that insurers will leave the state.
“This is where the rubber hits the road,” Donahue said. “We are going beyond the point of no return.”
