Vermont Single-Payer Financing Plan Released

The Shumlin administration released two financing plans Thursday evening: one for funding a publicly financed health care system and another to pay for portions of the state�s new health benefit exchange.

The much-anticipated single-payer financing plan provides more of a map of the state�s health care finance landscape than it does a course of action through it. The document itself alludes to the need for a plan with substantive revenue-generating measures.

�A future financing plan will likely feature a substantial and regular individual and employer contribution, similar to current law, albeit one paid through a public system,� the plan says.

The plan � which was drawn up by the University of Massachusetts for a price tag of $300,000 � estimates that the total savings of reforming the system would be about $35 million in 2017. The total $5.91 billion cost of the system would place a burden of $1.61 billion on taxpayers, after federal funding, and a $332 million chunk would be placed on employers who continued to enroll their employees on their insurance plans after the system takes effect.

While the plan points to a slate of tax bases for raising such revenues, the architects of the plan acknowledge the lack of information they had to work with � and, therefore, the potential inadequacy of their findings.

�Many details regarding the structure of a single payer system in Vermont have not been determined,� they write. �These details may significantly affect the assumptions underlying our models and therefore the results of our models.�

When Gov. Peter Shumlin and the Legislature approved Act 48 in 2011, they set the state on a track towards a publicly financed health care system. Part of that legislation called for a financing plan to be submitted to the Legislature by Jan. 15, 2013, that �shall recommend the amounts and necessary mechanisms to finance Green Mountain Care and any systems improvements needed to achieve a public-private universal health care system.�

On Thursday, Director of Health Care Reform Robin Lunge said the plan met the statutory goal.

�It has amounts, and it has necessary mechanisms included; it just doesn�t have one,� she said. Furthermore, she added, the plan seeds the Statehouse for constructive debate over how to pursue and implement such a health care system.

Jeffrey Wennberg, who runs the anti-single payer group Vermonters for Health Care Freedom, panned the report for its lack of substance.

�The report � contains surprisingly little information within its 91 pages,� he said in a public statement. �There is no multi-year budget or projection, and the Act 48-required recommendation for a funding source is completely absent.�