Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Donna Sutton Fay, the policy director for the Vermont Campaign for Health Care Security Education Fund.
All of the current discussion about the path Vermont is taking to develop a new health care system boils down to one thing — people. The current system does not serve the people of Vermont. Many Vermonters cannot afford insurance or to get care when they need it. The system is a complex patchwork of bureaucracies that is very hard for consumers to navigate. When Jeff Wennberg opposes the path Vermont is taking to develop its health benefits exchange and a single-payer system in his Oct. 22 op-ed, he opposes the change necessary to improve the health care system for Vermonters.
It is true that the administration is furiously working on implementing the exchange. Approximately 100,000 Vermonters will get their insurance through the exchange starting Jan. 1,2014, the date the Affordable Care Act requires that the exchange be operational. Tens of thousands more Vermonters will get their insurance through the exchange a few years later.
It is a very good thing this is a priority for the state. Vermonters enrolling through the exchange will need to be able to enroll in coverage and get their questions answered easily, quickly and accurately. The money Mr. Wennberg references being spent on the development of the exchange is federal money. Why would Vermont not want to use the money the federal government is giving us to develop the exchange?
Vermont is in the process of building a new health care system, one that will serve all Vermonters. The administration is going about it in the right way — deliberately and thoughtfully. Building a new system takes time — lots of time. The Green Mountain Care Board is implementing health care reforms. Not “as fast as it can,” but only after careful consideration and public input. It is critically important that we build the system right in the first place. It is much like building a house. It is far more cost-effective and efficient to take the time necessary to design and cost out a budget and build it right in the first place. Having to go back and retrofit and correct mistakes will be costly and time consuming, and the health of Vermonters will suffer.
The pace at which the administration and Legislature are implementing Act 48 and Act 171 is certainly not harming Vermonters. We will all benefit from a process that is done correctly the first time. And we certainly are not at a point of it “being too late to turn back.”
In January we will see the financing options, and then we can begin the public discussion of how to continue to build and finance our single-payer system, one that provides care to all Vermonters when they need it and at a price they can afford.
