The University of Vermont Medical Center’s Stephen Leffler wrote that “About 60% of our budget covers pay and benefits for our hardworking and dedicated employees.”
How much of that cost goes to the upper-level administrators? In 2020, the UVM system had 13 upper-level employees making more than $500,000. And that is just the upper level. How many total administrators does UVM employ and what portion of the budget request goes to cover their compensation? How many employees are needed simply to process the billing in our crazy-quilt insurance system?
He also points out, “Our budget must meet the needs of our patients both now and into the future.” Surely he’s aware that an ever-growing number of Vermonters 1) cannot afford to get medical care even though they have insurance, and 2) have medical debt that drags their lives down. How does UVMMC’s budget meet their needs, either now or in the future?
It’s long past time for all of us to stop fighting over who gets stuck paying for the exorbitant costs of health care — which is ultimately and always the patients — and focus on how to make those costs reasonable.
Why aren’t UVM Medical Center and all the other hospitals fighting for a sane single-payer system that we can all afford, one that drastically shrinks the billing departments and the army of other administrators?
Lodiza LePore
Bennington
