VT: Single-payer advocates plan to protest health care forum
By DANIEL BARLOW
Rutland Herald
March 13, 2009
MONTPELIER — Vermont doctors and other medical professionals who support a single-payer health care system plan to protest next week’s Burlington health care reform forum organized by President Barack Obama’s administration.
Deb Richter of the organization Vermont Health Care for All said Thursday that some single-payer advocates have been invited to attend the forum, moderated by Vermont Gov. James Douglas and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, but that the issue will not be seriously considered.
“It’s clear that a single-payer approach is not favored by inside the beltway politicians and the two governors headlining the event,” said Richter, a physician. “We saw the same thing with their health care event in D.C. … supporters of a single-payer system were shut out of the meeting.”
Douglas, a Republican, and Patrick, a Democrat, were handpicked by Obama earlier this month to headline the health care reform forum — one of five that will be held across the country as the new president prepares an overhaul of the system.
Douglas walks a fine line on health care reform. He vetoed a major public expansion of health care pushed by Democratic lawmakers several years ago and later compromised with the same lawmakers on the creation of Catamount Health, a public-private insurance program for the uninsured.
But next week’s forum comes at the same time as Douglas has proposed eliminating 38 Vermont Department of Health employees as part of his 2010 budget plan, including several who work on the Blueprint for Health — one of Vermont’s top health care reform efforts that Douglas is expected to promote next week.
“I find it particularly ironic you would propose to cut people in a program you are going to be bragging about next week,” House Speaker Shap Smith said.
Douglas said he hopes all such layoffs will be avoided by the union agreeing to pay cuts and other concessions.
“This is not an easy process,” said Douglas, who added that departments and agencies make recommendations about where to make cuts. “Yesterday was a very difficult one for my team.”
Christine Finley, deputy commissioner for public health, said that the potential layoffs — a couple of which may involve positions that work on the blueprint — will not weaken the state’s commitment to the program. The department is now working on how to manage those cuts if the layoffs do prove to be necessary, she said.
“The work of the blueprint is clearly a priority for the health department,” Finley said. “We have not changed our priority.”
It is hard to define how many health department workers help on the blueprint because most of those engaged in the department in helping Vermonters manage or avoid chronic diseases — from asthma work to anti-tobacco efforts — work on the blueprint in some capacity.
“It really is our effort to prevent chronic disease in the state and it cuts across what we do,” Finley said.
The single-payer demonstration will begin around noon outside of the Davis Center on the University of Vermont campus, according to Richter, and end around 1 p.m., the start time of the forum inside.
Richter said she was invited to the session earlier this week and will attend. But with a running time of 90 minutes — and an expected televised message from Obama to kick start the session — there is no way a massive overhaul of the health care industry can be debated that day, she said.
“We need a massive overhaul,” Richter said. “These Band-Aids will not work anymore.”
Richter said she expects doctors and health professionals from Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New York and Connecticut to travel to Burlington next Tuesday to participate in the demonstration.
During his weekly press conference Thursday, Douglas was surprised to hear that single-payer advocates will demonstrate outside of the forum. While he noted that Obama does not prefer the single-payer approach for this round of reforms, he said advocates with that position have been invited to the session.
“There will be single-payer advocates at the meeting,” Douglas said. “We are interested in hearing a broad range of viewpoints.”
Rebecca Deusser, the deputy press secretary for Gov. Patrick, had no comment Thursday on next week’s demonstrations or the governor’s position on single-payer health care. She said Patrick supports Obama’s approach to health care reform.
“Successful health care reform in Massachusetts has become a national model — with more than 98 percent of residents covered by health insurance,” she said in a prepared statement. “The governor looks forward to joining the discussion on how best to make quality health care available to all Americans, while containing skyrocketing costs.”
The Vermont Public Interest Research Group, a Montpelier organization that has advocated for a single-payer health care system, will be participating in next week’s forum — although they share the concerns of others that the issue will not be given a full hearing.
Susan Baker, the health care advocate for VPIRG, said the group’s ultimate goal is a single-payer system, but they recognize that an incremental approach that relies on a partnership between governments and the private insurance companies has stronger public support.
“We think it is great that people will be demonstrating outside and pushing the issue,” Baker said. “But we also believe that it will be productive to be inside and part of the discussion.”
Louis Porter contributed to this report.
daniel.barlow@timesargus.com