Health care reform passes in Vt
MONTPELIER, Vt. -
A happy exchange over the health care exchange-- lawmakers shook hands in congratulations Wednesday, as they passed one of the most controversial bills of the session out of conference committee.
"Everyone at this table signed the conference committee report and supports the bill going forward, everyone at this table and a majority of members of the House and Senate support the creation of the exchange," said Rep. Mike Fisher, D-Lincoln.
The health care exchange abides by the federal Affordable Care Act and puts in place a marketplace for health insurance. The difference between the federal law and Vermont law-- Vermont will mandate it. So small businesses of 50 or fewer will be required to drop their insurance plans by 2014 and buy into the exchange. By 2016 businesses of 100 or fewer will be added to the exchange and by 2017 Vermont will be all in. That will be called Green Mountain Care.
"What I've heard is there are a great many more unanswered questions than there are answers and that should be cause for concern for everyone," said Jeff Wennberg of Vermonters for Health Care Freedom.
Wennberg is leading the charge against single-payer care which won't be established in Vermont until 2017. He doesn't have a problem with the exchange itself; he just doesn't want it to be mandated.
"The scariest thing perhaps is that the Legislature, by making the exchange mandatory, is once again thumbing their nose at federal law and it's just reckless to behave in this way," Wennberg said.
But more than two-thirds of the Legislature approves of the exchange, which is why the conference committee had few differences to iron out between the Senate version of the bill and the House version of the bill.
"We wanted to make sure it is easy for people like you and me to be able to get insurance. We didn't want to make it any harder. We actually wanted to make it easier at a better price and I think we did that," said Sen. Claire Ayer, D-Addison County.
The nature of the bill itself changed very little in committee. Lawmakers tightened up language on the Legislature's oversight of the process once session is done. It also pushed for stronger benchmarks for the Legislature to check in as Vermont moves toward Green Mountain Care.
"We have always known that important and very tough decisions will have to be made as we move towards Green Mountain Care and we've always known that we would have to make those decisions and we'd have to do them in an open and transparent way," Fisher said.
Believe it or not, lawmakers say this was the easy part. The move toward Green Mountain Care is sure to foster stronger feelings and spirited debate down the road.
The committee's decision still needs final approval from the House and Senate before heading to the governor's desk to be signed into law.
http://www.wcax.com/story/18066324/health-care-reform-passes-in-montpelier
http://www.wcax.com/story/18066324/health-care-reform-passes-in-montpelier
29 comments:
Howard and VERMONT are first!
and I want to thank Bernie - he was the catalyst for this other fantastic news about health care in Vermont, from yesterday (pls note that this is the whole article, so I did give credit to the author):
May 1, 2012
Contact
Michael Briggs (202) 224-5141
First Site in Addison County Funded
BURLINGTON, Vt., May 1 – Vermont’s first community health center facility in Addison County will be built and an Essex County site will be refurbished with $2.2 million in new Affordable Care Act grants that the Vermont congressional delegation announced today.
The Community Health Centers of the Rutland Region was awarded $1.3 million to construct an office in Shoreham, Vt. The new Addison County facility is to be built on a site where a 2010 fire, sparked by lightning, destroyed the 200-year-old building that housed the office of the community’s only physician. The satellite office will be the first Federally Qualified Health Center site in the rural county of 37,000 residents.
Northern Counties Health Care, based in St. Johnsbury, Vt., will receive $874,668 in the latest round of grants under the Affordable Care Act. The funds are to expand and modernize a building in Island Pond, Vt., to increase medical and dental space.
“With these two new grants, we continue to expand primary health and dental care in the state of Vermont through the community health center program, which now provides care to more than 110,000 Vermonters. Our goal is to make sure that everyone in Vermont has access to high-quality primary care regardless of income and we’re making real progress toward that goal,” said U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
A Sanders provision in the 2010 health care law authorized $11 billion to build, expand, and operate more community health centers nationwide. An additional $1.5 billion was allotted to increase the number of primary care providers in underserved areas. The funding for these critical primary-care centers was designed to double to 40 million the number of patients served by health centers regardless of their ability to pay.
U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said, “I know how essential community health centers are to Vermont’s health care infrastructure. Rural areas, like much of Vermont, depend on these vital community-based resources to ensure the availability of local, dependable health services, and I am pleased that these grants will strengthen our health care network to serve Vermonters.”
U.S. Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said, “Community health services are integral to ensuring all Vermonters have access to affordable, quality health care. Increasing the availability of primary care services in rural communities is good for Vermont and saves money through investments in preventative care. Vermont leads the nation in providing quality health care to all its citizens regardless of income. These grants will ensure we continue this leading role.”
In Vermont, there are now eight federally qualified health centers. Each has satellite sites creating a total of 41 locations treating more than 110,000 patients, a greater percentage of the total population than any other state. A nearly-completed $11.3 million project will double the size of the Community Health Centers of Burlington, the state’s largest. That expansion was designed to allow the center to treat another 3,500 patients, a 25 percent increase. Another $10 million in federal funds was previously awarded to other Vermont health centers to hire more staff and renovate facilities.
cont... due to charachter limit!
Nationwide, the health care law already has supported 190 construction and renovation projects at health centers and supported the creation of 67 new health center sites across the country. During the next two years, the law will support more than 485 new health center construction and renovation projects and create at least 245 new community health center sites.
clip... Open to everyone, the centers care for patients covered by Medicaid, Medicare and private insurance, as well as those who have no insurance. Payments are on a sliding scale, so people with low or moderate incomes can afford the services.
Wow! This is just wonderful! A real triumph! And for Dean, and Dean people! He started constructing this road SO long ago!!
Jo was going to add a live link to the headline, but I can't. Lost privileges, lol!
Here it is for a quick reference:
http://www.wcax.com/story/18066324/health-care-reform-passes-in-montpelier
Looks like a huge victory for Vermont, the whole country---and Dean Inspired People.
Congratulations Vermonters!!!!
puddle I'm not sure how you lost priveleges - I still see you as a contributor.
thanks for the link - I'll add it!
ahhh, I see the problem - you were author but not admin - you're all set now.
also that link is to a different article about the vote but it's a good one so I used it rather than go look for the one I used.
Thanks! All the little garbage cans and pencils are back, lol! Which means I can do my own "delete forever"!
Gotta say, learning this new interface is a PITA.
Couldn't figure out how the link could be different since I used your text to find it -- So just clicked: they've *updated* it. Vicissitudes of the nets, lol!
vicissitude - Wiktionary
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vicissitude
Jump to Etymology: Etymology. From Latin vicissitudo (“change”), from vicissim (“on the other hand, in turn”), from vicis (“change, vicissitude”), whence ...
Lol! Used it, then got to wondering why the hell I *knew* it and where it came from. . . . After mis-googling for the entomology, got it, grin.
ahh, I was thinking about the article about hc centers, not the legislation! doh! I must be tired...... ;)
I love what words can do/be. And have wondered for long about those who use them as blunt instruments. . . . How *confusing* their lives must be. How one manages even to have the barest outline of a relationship without the ability to communicate? Or to be effective or successful in any endeavor at all?
When sea would quote "Abraham" I could hear the rhythms and rhymes of my native Mormon. Abraham-Hicks actually sounds a whole lot like my mother! I was really puzzled. That more than anything else was what set me to looking. Discovering that Esther Hicks was raised Mormon fit exactly into place. But somehow, gotta wonder why Christ and his 99 fellow souls would use that? If one is *authentically* channeling spirits, shouldn't they have their *own* voices? I've noted that with some other channelers, too.
I've long thought that a lot of the cadence of Mormon speech comes from so much reading of the Book of Mormon, which is, of course, Joseph Smith's idea of what God would sound like. . . .
Sorry. Guess this is off topic, to say the least, lol!
And speaking of the Book of Mormon. . . .
There's a character always called the Brother of Jared. Elsewhere, Jos. Smith mentioned his name was actually, Mahonri Moriancumer -- I remember thinking as a teen, that if MY name were Mahonri Moriancumer, I believe I'd rather be called the Brother of Jared, too, lol!
So: Mahonri Moriancumer is how an early 19th Century New-Englander imagined that an early Hebrew name might sound. . . . Whew!
'this' is gonna crack you up, puddle.
pageviews for this blog (btw, we passed 1000 yesterday!). I see that CR is an extremely active lurker. I'm guessing that John is in Canada right now and I now wonder if former lives in Russia...... I 'do' hope the peeps decide to join the respectful conversations that we're having...
United States 308
Costa Rica 71
Russia 26
Canada 10
Indonesia 2
Germany 1
France 1
just popped over to the 'old' blog via my link to the watercooler to find that fb link again - they have more than one page. anywhooo, it is now officially gone. my old link takes you to the main page now.
RIP BFA.
Jo, don't flatter yourself. 71 hits? LOL
Somethings wrong with your counter.
I check in several times a day to see if my friends are here.
baby alert! sis in law was going to be induced tomorrow but baby has other plans and they are headed to the hospital now! yay!
hi seashell. ummm, I mean Judy.
maybe something's wrong with your counter. the blog is 9 days old, after all. and I think you must have lurked over here about 20 times the first day.... you know, the day you were such a bitch to me. one of many, too many to count.
get lost. I welcomed you here, you had your chance and you just couldn't be nice, not even for a day. so go lurk somewhere else.
lol! good morning!
on the way to the hospital around midnight last night my bro and his wife thought they saw a couple of naked men running near the UVM campus. up the hill and around the corner they came across more than 50 naked people walking and biking. YES, people, yesterday was the last day of classes and from news reports thousands showed up in proper (un)attire for the annual naked walk/bike ride!
UVM cancelled their support this year but I guess that didn't matter because they say the event was bigger than ever. and thankfully for them we had temps in the 50s last night!
they had pics on the local news this am so perhaps I'll have photos or video to post later! lol!
link to naked peeps. no photos or vid..... yet!
http://www.wcax.com/story/18087526/uvm-naked-bike-ride-run-goes-on
Jo, sea could be right. I clicked the link for the new first referrer and got a porn site. So I googled the URL, and it appears to be a site in Argentina. Most of the references are in Spanish. There's one page in French that appears to link it with a trojan.
So, it *could* be that if someone's computer has been over taken with a trojan, it could be clicking random places, picking up traffic for its sites.
There was a post at Booman a week or so ago about the trubble they were having with spammers, and how they make money. I know when baby was new, it got a lot more hits from spammers -- the assumption being, I think, that brand new bloggers will have a harder time, take longer to get rid of them?
When you mentioned *nekkid* this morning, I thought at first that you'd clicked on the referrer link, lol!
Morning!
The hits from Canada might be Rich Kolker.
So our booth opens today and the boss arrives, so last day for "me" being my own boss, ha!
Last night I went to dinner at a tapas place with Lori, who I met at Jazzfest. It was called Salu and it's on Magazine street. It was wonderful! The things they do with duck down here is amazing. Duck on a bed of greens with blue cheese and walnuts, topped with a very nice vinagrette. Duck flautas with manchengo cheese were very nice. We ordered the oysters nachos, which were lightly fried, topped with guac on a tortilla chip with a chipolte sauce. Sauted artichokes. And for the final plate, amazingly tender lamb chops accompanied by pita with a fava bean and roasted red pepper hummus. YUM! No room for dessert.
Oh and it's nice to know that San Francisco isn't the only place where people get nekkid to commemorate something.
Excellent news on the healthcare front, too! GO VERMONT!
thanks puddle - I had not noticed the referrer sites.
hi Denise - so glad that you had some down time b4 getting down to work. you're making me hungry and I just had breakfast!
Just popped in to say Good Morning to all my peeps. Off to get some work done. It's been hard to concentrate the past few days.
Sending good vibes to all.
hi Barb - sending hugs your way. xo
The Goobey's being a good bit quieter today. Perhaps the kids aren't being as active, or perhaps they're not *quite* as interesting today. Better, in any case.
The weather's nuts. Yesterday had heat in the morning, the A/C in the afternoon, and heat again by evening. Normally, in a bad year I run the A/C maybe seven days. . . . Years in a row, not at all. This is awful early to be starting.
And no, I doubt sea's friends will be showing here. Too damn much sunshine!!
Here's the article about the spam attack at Booman. Amazing the ways the dishonest have figured out how to make money from the nets. . . .
Radical Centrist Deathwatch
By mistermix May 3rd, 2012
Tom Friedman, last July:
Write it down: Americans Elect. What Amazon.com did to books, what the blogosphere did to newspapers, what the iPod did to music, what drugstore.com did to pharmacies, Americans Elect plans to do to the two-party duopoly that has dominated American political life — remove the barriers to real competition, flatten the incumbents and let the people in. Watch out.
Yes, watch out idiots with more money than sense, because here it comes:
A group clearing the path for an independent White House bid on Tuesday canceled the first phase of its search for a bipartisan ticket because declared and draft candidates aren’t mustering enough preliminary support.
Americans Elect scrapped a virtual caucus that had been planned for next week. Another round of voting set for May 15 also is in jeopardy; a third is to be held on May 22. Candidates must meet a certain threshold of support to be eligible for the caucuses.
Ileana Wachtel, a spokeswoman for the group, says no one gathered enough online “clicks” to qualify.
These compulsive masturbators raised $22 million and spent $9 million on their website. Kudos to whomever fucked them out of that chunk of change—what an epic killing that was. If there was a hall of fame for IT screwjobs, this one would be in it.
(via Kos)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Live links at the Original: http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/05/03/look-whos-running-the-show/
New thread!!
(And Jo, any time you wish to re-draft anything and/or supersede, feel free.)
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