The Swiss prescription

posted January 6, 2006

For all their pretense of “listening” during a series of public forums throughout the summer and fall, elected officials in Vermont remain bent on creating an election-year placebo rather than the pill needed to fix our ailing health care system.

Posturing by both Democrats and Republican Gov. Jim Douglas is little more than political theatrics designed to keep their supporters engaged while the rest of us are simply left to listen.

Both reform proposals rely too heavily on an increasingly overburdened Medicaid program that is still projected to have deficits in excess of $200 million in the coming years. While the intent is good, it is being driven by quick-fix logic. Medicaid pays less than 65 cents on the dollar to doctors and hospitals.

Pushing more people onto Medicaid rolls will exacerbate the cost shift that drives up the cost of services and billing to private insurers.

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