Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin on Wednesday dropped his plan to enact a
single-payer health care system in his state — a plan that had won praise from
liberals but never really got much past the framework stage.
gThis is not the right timeh for enacting single payer, Shumlin said in a
statement, citing the big tax increases that would be required to pay for
it.
Shumlin faced deep skepticism that lawmakers could agree on a way to pay for
his ambitious goal and that the feds would agree to everything he needed to
create the first state-based single-payer system in 2017.
And that was all before Shumlin, a Democrat, almost lost reelection last
month in one of the countryfs most liberal states. And it was before MIT
economist Jonathan Gruber, the now notorious Obamacare consultant who also
advised Vermont until his $400,000 contract was killed amid the controversy,
became political poison.
Shumlin had missed two earlier financing deadlines but finally released his
proposal. But he immediately cast it as gdetrimental to Vermonters.h The model
called for businesses to take on a double-digit payroll tax, while individuals
would face up to a 9.5 percent premium assessment. Big businesses, in
particular, didnft want to pay for Shumlinfs plan while maintaining their own
employee health plans.
gThese are simply not tax rates that I can responsibly support or urge the
Legislature to pass,h the governor said. gIn my judgment, the potential economic
disruption and risks would be too great to small businesses, working families
and the statefs economy.h
And that was for a plan that would not be truly single payer. Large companies
with self-insured plans regulated by ERISA would have been exempt. And Medicare
also would have operated separately, unless the state got a waiver, which was a
long shot.
Shumlin added that federal funds available for the transition were $150
million less than expected.
He also has a lot less political capital than before November. Shumlin,
chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, still hasnft even officially
won his own reelection bid: The Legislature will settle the outcome of the
November race in January because Shumlin failed to win more than 50 percent of
the vote. Hefs leading his Republican challenger by just a few thousand
ballots.
And the substance of the plan isnft its only politically problematic aspect.
Gruber, now infamous for his blunt assessments of the Affordable Care Act and
his remarks about gstupidh voters, was until recently a state consultant. Days
after the election, video emerged of him dismissing criticism of Vermontfs plan
in 2011 by asking, gWas this written by my adolescent children, by any chance?h
State officials said they would cut off his contract.
Advocates of a single-payer plan said Shumlin should not be able to cast
aside Act 48, the 2011 law that called for the creation of Green Mountain Care,
without repealing it. A group planned to hold a rally in front of the statehouse
on Thursday to protest his decision.
gThe governorfs misguided decision was a completely unnecessary result of a
failed policy calculation that he pursued without Democratic input,h the group
Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign said in a statement.
Rachana Pradhan contributed to this report.