Doctors Backing Single Payer System Fault Vermont’s Plan

Physicians for a National Health Program suggest the proposal in Vermont falls "far short" of their goals, The Hill Reports. Meanwhile, The Boston Globe has an interview with one of the architects of the Vermont plan.

The Hill: Vermont Health Care Plan Criticized By Allies In The Single-Payer Movement
Vermont's proposed health care reform falls short of the single-payer overhaul it's being billed as, the advocacy group Physicians for a National Health Program said Thursday. The doctors group said the bill passed by the Vermont House of Representatives late last month falls "far short" of single-payer reform. The bill would create a public program open to all Green Mountain state residents by 2017 but would retain a role for private insurers. "This would negate many of the administrative savings that could be attained by a true single-payer program," PNHP said in a statement, "and opens the way for the continuation of multi-tiered care" (Pecquet, 4/7).

The Boston Globe: With Health Costs Rising, Vermont Moves Toward A Single-Payer System
Faced with rising costs and residents still without health insurance, Vermont lawmakers are poised to pass a single-payer health care plan, which would reshape how the state's doctors are paid and become the first of its type in the US. The plan, approved last month by the Vermont House of Representatives, was designed by William Hsiao, an economics professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. Hsiao also designed the single-payer system in Taiwan, and consulted on health care reform in seven other countries (Wirzbicki, 4/7).

See also a related KHN story on Vermont's plans for single payer system.