Protesters demand action on single payer, condemn Shumlin’s reversal
By Morgan True
VTDigger.org, December 18, 2014
Protesters from across the state descended on Montpelier Thursday to voice their anger with Gov. Peter Shumlin’s decision to drop his pursuit of single payer health care. More than 60 people stood in front of the Statehouse chanting slogans and singing protest songs.
Deb Richter, a longtime single payer advocate who regularly attends the Green Mountain Care Board’s meetings, tried to convince protesters that Shumlin is not their enemy.
“He’s the only governor in the country who raised this issue and put it in the forefront,” she said.
She urged them to have patience, and said she’s still optimistic Vermont will be the first state to have public universal health care, but that goal may need to achieved in increments, as the governor indicated when he made his announcement Wednesday.
“This is like turning the Titanic,” she said, “Frankly, beating up on the governor I do not believe is really going to be helpful.”
Richter called on the protesters to take their message to the Legislature, which she said is now the most fertile ground for making progress on health reform.
http://vtdigger.org/2014/12/18/protesters-demand-action-single-payer-condemn-shumlins-betrayal/
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Comment:
By Don McCanne, MD
Deb Richter is right. The criticisms of Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin are not only misdirected, many of them are based on the notion that he had all of the tools at hand to establish a single payer system in Vermont, but that he then decided not to move forward in response to political pressure. We should look carefully at the facts and then decide what approach we should now take to advance the single payer cause.
Many of the protests state or imply that Vermont was on the cusp of implementing a single payer system, but the effort failed because Gov. Shumlin was not innovative enough in his financing proposal for the single payer system, and then elected to abandon it because of the tax burden on individuals and businesses.
What is wrong with this concept? Well, many things, but the most important is that the model that the governor was trying to implement WAS NOT A SINGLE PAYER MODEL. Excuse the shouting, but everyone must understand that this was not a failure of the single payer model.
Very early it was clear that Vermont could not establish a single payer system without federal support. Even the Obama administration did not have the tools to grant the comprehensive “waivers” that would be required since the process for such waivers must be authorized by Congress. The available Sec 1115 Medicaid waivers, Sec 1332 ACA waivers, and the highly limited Medicare demonstration waivers are not nearly enough to assemble a single payer program. Also ERISA restrictions prevent the state from moving self-funded employer-sponsored health plans into a state system.
It became so obvious that the label, “single payer,” was removed from the legislation, H.202, and the bill was completely rewritten. The bill passed WAS NOT A SINGLE PAYER BILL. After negotiations with the Obama administration, it was clear that there was no way to transfer the control of Medicare to the state government. It was decided that Medicare had to be left out since there was no other option. Another dilemma was that Vermont could not force employers such as IBM into the program, yet the financing system for Green Mountain Care (the surviving entity that was not even close to being a single payer for Vermont) would require payroll taxes and income taxes. How could you require IBM and their employees to pay taxes into a state health care program when they are already paying into IBM’s health benefit program? There are a multitude of other problems that we won’t repeat here, but Vermont was never even close to establishing a single payer system.
When opponents of single payer use the failure in Vermont as proof that single payer cannot work, we must respond that VERMONT NEVER ENACTED A SINGLE PAYER BILL. The bill that was enacted was not much more than a variation on the Affordable Care Act. Although it did have the unique feature of attempting to consolidate private insurers into Green Mountain Care, it failed to provide processes to implement the great multitude of other beneficial features that would be required to make it a single payer system. Vermont’s effort WAS NOT A FAILURE OF THE SINGLE PAYER MODEL.
Gov. Shumlin was not to blame. The federal restrictions were simply overwhelming, making implementation of single payer impossible without major federal legislative action. Nevertheless, Gov. Shumlin continued with his efforts to move forward with implementing as many features of single payer as were possible in this political environment. Any objective analysis reveals that there were too few options at his disposal. Merely expanding our dysfunctional system results in increased health care spending. Innumerable studies have shown that expanding on our system increases spending while falling short of reform goals. Gov. Shumlin just proved that once again. This was not a failure of the single payer model; it was a failure of a model composed of flawed health policies found in our current financing system, as perpetuated by the Affordable Care Act. A true single payer system achieves all goals while slowing spending to sustainable levels.
So what do we do now? Once everyone finishes with their venting, it is imperative that we all pick up our pace in moving forward with single payer. There are many tasks at hand. The three most important you’ve heard repeatedly: education, education, education. The nation needs to have a better understanding of single payer (and I dare say that applies to some in our own camp as well). We need both federal and state legislation. States cannot do it without enabling federal legislation, but then states will need their own legislation to implement the single payer bill enacted by Congress. Until we have the requisite federal legislation, states should begin working on cleaning up our health care financing systems so that the eventual transition to single payer will flow more smoothly.
Many have said that we cannot do anything for the next two years because of the red tide in Congress. On the contrary, two years is almost too short of a time to intensify our education efforts, and begin building the political momentum for reform, ideally before the 2016 elections. We need to get working immediately.
The news from Vermont should not be a reason to walk. On the contrary, it provides us with a reality check on what we need to do.
By the way, did I say that this was not a failure of single payer, since it was never a single payer model in the first place?
(Note: There are many views being expressed now, and some of them are in conflict. The views here are mine and not the official views of PNHP. During this time, all opinions should be expressed, but awfulizing and obstruction of progress should be avoided at all costs. We need to sound off, regroup, and then move forward both individually and in unison in our quest for health care justice for all.)
