The irony is not lost on any of us that the same week the Vermont House Committee on Government and Military Operations expedited a vote on S.39 — granting its members access to the most affordable health care: free health care — it denied Vermonters access to affordable health care by jettisoning S.9, an act relating to the State Auditor’s Office auditing powers.
The context here is that, under the purview of state Auditor Doug Hoffer previously attempting to audit OneCare VT, the state’s all-payer model accountable care organization, OneCare refused to turn over pertinent information necessary for his audit. The Vermont Attorney General joined him in a lawsuit, suing OneCare for access to the information.
Through a misfortunate judicial ruling on appeal, it was determined the state auditor’s office was not entitled to the information he needed to guarantee Vermonters their scarce tax and premium dollars were being used as intended. The court ruled, however, with a wink-wink, that certainly the Legislature could correct this by clarifying the intent of the state auditor’s purview legislatively.
Legislative Bill S.9 was championed by Sens. Ruth Hardy and Christopher Brace to permit the state auditor future access to all documents its office found fit when auditing state contractors who consume an outsized share of Vermont tax dollars as state agencies contract with them to execute on taxpayers’ behalf. Powerful lobbyists intervened, aided by Sen. Ginny Lyons, stalling and ultimately torpedoing the bill.
In the same week that Ms. Lyons was guaranteed she and all her legislative colleagues would receive free health care, she and the opponents she helped galvanize, such as Rep. McCarthy, denied Vermonters a guarantee that an independent agency could make sure their health care was as affordable as possible — at a time when their health care could not be more unaffordable, or accessible for that matter.
If this bothers you, please write to the below legislators and governor’s representatives, demanding that the governor veto S.39 unless the Legislature adds S.9 to be passed into legislation.
wpage@leg.state.vt.us, cbray@leg.state.vt.us, rhardy@leg.state.vt.us, tvyhovsky@leg.state.vt.us, JHooper@leg.state.vt.us, LHango@leg.state.vt.us, cevans@leg.state.vt.us, knugent@leg.state.vt.us, lboyden@leg.state.vt.us, mbirong@leg.state.vt.us, mmccarthy@leg.state.vt.us, mmorgan@leg.state.vt.us, mmrowicki@leg.state.vt.us, rhooper@leg.state.vt.us, jason.maulucci@vermont.gov, jason.gibbs@vermont.gov, rebecca.kelley@vermont.gov.
Robert Hoffman
Quechee
