WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Vermont Expands Health Coverage

Vermont Expands Health Coverage

Burlington, Vermont -- September 19, 2007

Vermont's attempt to cover the uninsured with comprehensive health insurance is due to take effect Nov. 1.  And state leaders are trying to get the message out that people who could not afford health insurance before may find it much more affordable, now that the state will have a program that subsidizes the cost of health insurance premiums.

The new program is called the Catamount Health Plan, which will cover people who don't qualify for Medicaid, or the existing Vermont programs known as VHAP and Doctor Dynasaur.  State officials say people will be able to begin signing up for CHP starting Oct. 1.

State officials say information will be available on a centralized web site at www.greenmountaincare.org starting next month. They say an 800 number is currently up and running and will have extra staffing when a media campaign hits the air. The number is 1-800-250-8427.  

Donna Sutton Fay, an outreach coordinator for the Vermont Campaign for Health Care Security Education Fund, called it "really a first step in a much broader health care reform effort."

Health care advocates say there won't be complete reform until a system of universal health insurance is put in place. The Catamount Health Plan was the product of a legislative compromise, in which lawmakers decided to subsidize health insurance premiums on a sliding scale according to one's income.

Individuals earning less than $1702 dollars a month would pay just $60 a month. The sliding scale fee increases to nearly $400 for people earning more than $2500 a month. There is no upper limit on income eligibility, but at the cutoff point there is no government subsidy.

"It's not universal health care," Mayor Bob Kiss (P-Burlington) said. "But the fact that it is now including employer premiums, beneficiary premiums and government funding to expand its coverage for health care is an important step forward."

Vermont's director of Health Care Reform Implementation, Susan Besio, said Catamount Health is predicated on a greater amount of federal funding. Under Vermont's plan, people making up to 300% of poverty, a bit more than $30,000, would qualify for premium subsidies. The Bush administration has declined to grant a waiver that would allow Medicaid funds to be used for insurance recipients above 200% pf poverty. But Besio said she believes it will happen, sooner or later.

"So we think that sometime in the next eighteen months, whether it's after this SCHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Program) debate is resolved at the federal level or whether there's a change in administration, that CMS (the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) will start working with states in a proactive way to help us do what's right for our citizens," she said.

Catamount Health Plan was designed to emphasize primary care, the kind that can prevent more serious and medically expensive problems in the future. Unlike other government programs like Medicaid, it is intended to reimburse medical providers for the full monetary value of their services.

John Tracy, a field representative for Sen. Patrick Leahy who worked extensively on health care reform as a state legislator, told Channel 3 that Vermont's plan will help address health care cost control in the long run, and do so without penalizing providers. "Catamount Health pays them what they need to provide the service, doesn't play that cost-shift game," Tracy said. "And it gets people the right care at the right place at the right time. It's a great investment. It's an ounce of prevention, and it's worth a pound of cure."

Andy Potter -- WCAX News