Vermont regulators, hospitals interested in seeing work from new VT Healthcare 911 coalition partly led by former Gov. Jim Douglas
Rutland Herald
A coalition featuring a former governor, doctors, and business and labor leaders says the cost of health care in Vermont is too high and plans to make lowering a priority.
The coalition, VT Healthcare 911, held a press conference Wednesday to announce its intentions.
“Vermont’s premiums are double the national average,” stated former Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas, in a release. “We know this is hurting job growth and slowing our economy.”
According to the release, Douglas is co-chair of the group’s leadership council along with Lisa Ventriss, former leader of Vermont Business Roundtable.
Former state senator Chris Pearson is chair of the coalition’s board of directors.
“It is an unusual coalition. I mean, it’s hard to remember a time when CEOs, labor, and consumer groups were all united like that,” he said Thursday.
The group began to form last year around data showing Vermont pays much more through hospital costs than its neighboring states, said Pearson.
“And as we sat together and stewed on it, we started talking about the strategy of a broad and unusual coalition to help this case get taken seriously,” he said. “To me, it is a very serious crisis and it demands attention, and particularly in this divisive political time demonstrating common ground among unlikely allies we hope is a way to have this get the attention it deserves.”