[A]n advocacy group that has pushed for health care expansion for almost a decade will close its doors next month.
The Vermont Campaign for Health Care Security (VCHCS) will pull up stakes Aug. 1, the group’s executive director, Peter Sterling, announced Monday.
The campaign launched in 2007 to help educate Vermonters about the then-newly inaugurated Catamount Health, and later helped to raise awareness and enrollment in Vermont Health Connect. The group was also a major supporter of a single payer health care plan.
Sterling decided to wind down the operation when two of the major sources of funding came up for renewal, he said in a phone interview Monday.
The organization was funded primarily by a navigator grant, which aims to expand coverage under the Affordable Care Act. A smaller grant from the American Heart Association funded a push for a sugary drinks excise tax.
Looking forward, Sterling said he does not expect the Legislature to take on some of the major issues about access to health care in the second half of the biennium.
“I don’t see the 2016 session as one where there’s potential for major reform in health care,” Sterling said.
The high price of premiums continues to make health care prohibitive for many Vermonters, he said. However, reluctance among lawmakers to raise new revenues will make it difficult to address issues of access, he said.
“Maybe it’s time for someone else to go to fight legislative leadership,” Sterling said.
The Vermont Campaign for Health Care Security pushed for extending Medicaid eligibility and improving access to health care. The Campaign also advocated for a single payer health care system. In December, Gov. Peter Shumlin pulled the plug on a plan to replace the health insurance premium system with a tax-funded program.
The organization played a role in creating subsidy programs to offset premium costs in Vermont Health Connect. It also pushed for pregnant women to receive dental coverage under Dr. Dynasaur, according to a news release.
The Vermont NEA, long an advocate for publicly funded universal health care, supported VCHCS from its inception.
Darren Allen, Vermont NEA spokesperson, said the campaign is leaving on a high note, noting that there have been many health care victories in recent years.
“The landscape has changed significantly over the last decade in health care reform,” Allen said
Allen said the Vermont NEA is wary of new health care reform proposals as the state has faced budget shortages in recent years. Lawmakers’ resistance to raising new revenue has made it “almost impossible” to expand programs, Allen said.
Rep. Bill Lippert, D-Hinesburg, who heads the House Health Care Committee, said that he and his Senate counterpart, Sen. Claire Ayer, D-Addison, initially pushed for a plan that would have addressed the Medicaid cost shift last legislative session.
Lippert said that there are significant items on the agenda that lawmakers and the Shumlin administration need to address. He pointed to Gov. Peter Shumlin’s fall deadline for Vermont Health Connect, at which point Vermont could switch to a federal exchange model.
Lawmakers will also be reviewing a study of universal primary health coverage, he said.
“I think there are significant health care issues which the Legislature needs to be actively involved in with the administration,” Lippert said.
Trinka Kerr, a health care advocate with Vermont Legal Aid, said that she was not surprised to hear that the campaign was closing down in the wake of Shumlin’s announcement that he would no longer seek to implement a single payer system.
Kerr said that the state is still evaluating what steps should come next.
“I think after the failure of the grand plan, I think everybody is falling back and regrouping and rethinking what to do next,” Kerr said.
