Health care reform bill on way to governor

MONTPELIER — Walter Carpenter received a text message Thursday morning alerting him to the final roll call vote on health care reform.

Carpenter, 55, has been among the faithful followers of this legislation throughout the session, so he dashed the four blocks from his home to the Statehouse to witness passage of the bill.

“I was choked up,” Carpenter said describing how he felt when House Speaker Shap Smith, D-Morristown, announced the 94-49 vote that points Vermont toward a consolidated health care system covering all residents.

“This is personal for me,” Carpenter said. His advocacy for health care as a right and for a system that covers everyone grew from his own experience with private insurance, he said. Carpenter was in the midst of treatment for a life-threatening illness when his employer switched insurers, forcing him to find new doctors and change hospitals. Then he lost his job and his insurance, and had to grapple with paying for an operation that would save his life. “I had to barter the price for my own life. Imagine that.”

The bill’s next stop is Gov. Peter Shumlin’s desk.

“Obviously, I intend to sign the bill,” Shumlin said. “This really is an extraordinarily exciting moment for Vermont. We have a long way to travel, but I am convinced we can get health care right and this is the bill that will get us there.”

The outcome of the House vote was never in doubt, but supporters and opponents still took a few minutes to stake out their positions on the measure.

“With this bill, we continue our journey to a health care system that is just and affordable,” Rep. Willem Jewett, D-Ripton, said.

Rep. Cynthia Browning, D-Arlington, praised the sections of the bill intended to control cost increases in medical care and establish the federally mandated health benefit exchange, a new marketplace for health insurance.

She worried, however, that the bill pushed the state too quickly toward a consolidated health insurance system before answering many critical questions.

She also criticized the bill for delegating responsibility to answer the tough questions to an unelected board. “We have basically said this is too hard for us.”

“I hope I’m wrong. I hope this works out better than I think it will,” Browning said. She voted against the bill.

Rep. Ronald Hubert, R-Milton, questioned how lawmakers could support such a significant reform without knowing what kind of medical care would result or how much it would cost.

Rep. Kurt Wright, R-Burlington, acknowledged problems with the current health care system, but disagreed with the Democrats’ remedy.

“Do we need reform of our health care industry? Yes, clearly,” Wright said. “Do we need to head down a road where we turn our health care industry on its head? No.”

Rep. George Till, D-Jericho, offered a long list of the bill’s shortcomings, including the delayed presentation of a financing plan and inadequate provisions to address the causes of rising health costs.

Still, Till argued, “The real reason to vote for this bill is we must have universal coverage of all Vermonters.”

Speaking after the vote, House Health Care Chairman Mark Larson, D-Burlington, grinned about the achievement. “I feel very proud of Vermont today. We continue to show we can be the leader in health care.”

Larson said the next step is the “show me” phase. The bill calls several years of planning and sets conditions that must be met before the state officials could launch the proposed Green Mountain Care program.

Larson and other supporters of health reform have acknowledged the importance of federal funding to its success. Critics noted Thursday that the U.S. House — but not the Senate — voted to cut funding to states for development of the health benefit exchanges called for under federal health reform. Vermont’s exchange is one of the building blocks for Green Mountain Care.

“If the federal government pulls back on its commitment to health care, Vermonters will feel it,” Larson said. That would be true, he noted, regardless of whether the state moves to Green Mountain Care.

John O’Kane, government relations director at IBM, was one of the early critics of the health reform legislation. Thursday, while at the Statehouse for another reason, he observed that the bill is a planning document that postpones many critical decisions to future years. IBM will carefully monitor the process, “trying to understand the detail.”

“There is no question there needs to be a change in health care,” O’Kane said. “We can’t keep doing what we are doing.” He had argued, however, that gains could be made without taking the risks of a single-payer system.

“This is the biggest thing, the most complex thing that Vermont has ever undertaken,” O’Kane said, adding it’s far from a done deal.

“If it were a hockey game, we would say first period done,” O’Kane concluded.

Contact Nancy Remsen at 578-5685 or nremsen@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com