Racine Moves Health Care Reform Forward

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
March 9, 2010
CONTACTS:
Doug Racine 802-343-5417
Amy Shollenberger 802-793-1114

Bill is “essential next step” for state

MONTPELIER, VT — Senate Health and Welfare Committee chairman Doug Racine will introduce a bill today that will design the system that will deliver real health care to Vermonters, and answer all of the questions that need to be answered to implement this new system. The bill will be introduced at 1:30 pm in the committee. The bill will call for the state to hire independent advisors, who will be overseen by a panel of Vermonters, to provide the state with a “menu of options.” These advisors will design three different health care systems—fully design them, not just study them—and deliver back to the legislature a full implementation plan for each of the three possible systems.

“This is the essential next step in health care reform that will lead to universal access to affordable health care for all Vermonters,” Racine explained. “What is needed is true systemic reform, and we cannot have real reform without a real plan to create a whole new system—a not-for-profit system that strives to promote health and prevent disease, while at the same time provides care to those who need it.”

As a candidate for governor, Racine promised last fall to move health care reform forward this year in the legislature. After holding a well-attended public hearing in January, Racine has held a series of committee hearings to examine the many bills introduced this year. Racine stated, “I am convinced that health care reform is not only necessary for the well being of Vermonters, it is necessary if Vermont is to pull out of the economic crisis that we are facing. Universal access and affordability are critical to dealing with several economic issues that we are facing.”

The proposed bill requires not only a design for each option, but an implementation plan, and it will include a list for each plan of the total cost and how it will be paid for, the pros and cons, how it will ensure that every Vermonter has access to health care, and what the unintended consequences might be—in terms of the economy, jobs, and health care delivery systems.

“We must move away from simply ‘managing disease’ and create an expectation that all people deserve good health and good health care,” Racine noted.

The bill will be introduced as a strike-all amendment to S.88, and will follow the basic structure of S.88, with the added requirements. The bill will also include a requirement to adhere to the five principles called for by the Health Care is a Human Right campaign.

Racine’s full statement on the bill can be found here.