by Aimee Miles
Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, who was elected last November after promising to reform health care in the state, unveiled a bill Tuesday that would abolish most forms of private health insurance and move state residents into a publicly funded insurance pool.
His much anticipated proposal lays out a strategy that leaves a number of key details — including how to pay for the system — open for debate.
Under Shumlin's "single-payer" system, Vermont residents would receive health benefits paid for by the state, regardless of their employment status or income. The plan is designed to help stem rising health costs, which state officials say have become unsustainable.
"Health care costs are climbing at a rate of more than 12 times the growth of the Vermont economy, and we're not getting the best value for our money," Shumlin said in a prepared statement. "The time for change has come."
Former Vermont governor Howard Dean, who unsuccessfully sought to institute a single-payer system in 1994, praised the effort.
"It makes a lot of sense, and it'll save them a ton of money," he said in an interview.
