In wake of landmark hospital report, Vermont lawmakers look toward health care reforms
Earlier this year, a consultant issued a report recommending sweeping changes to the state’s health care system — proposals that ranged from building more housing to cutting certain services at specific hospitals.
At a meeting of lawmakers and state health officials late last week, Sen. Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden Southeast, questioned Green Mountain Care Board Chair Owen Foster and Secretary of Human Services Jenney Samuelson on that report.
Of the scores of recommendations, Lyons, the chair of the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare, asked what would be the simplest for the Legislature to implement: “Which is the low-hanging fruit?” she said at the Friday meeting.
The officials’ answers — which included proposed reforms to hospital regulations, state emergency medical services and electronic medical records — now seem poised to form key planks of the health care agenda in the upcoming legislative biennium.
As Vermont’s population has aged, the state’s health care system has appeared increasingly unsustainable. Private health insurance premiums are among the most expensive and fastest-growing in the country. Many hospitals and other health clinics are operating at a loss. Appointments for primary and specialty care can be few and far-between.