Dousing Vt.'s 'village on fire'
Vermont’s health care system has been characterized by a legislator, not as a "house on fire," but as a whole village. Our hospitals are operating at maximum capacity. Nine of our 14 hospitals are operating at a deficit. Vacant positions at many of our hospitals are going unfilled. Patients are sent out-of-state for care. These challenges even apply to lower-level care facilities, including our home-health organizations.
The temptation in chaotic times is to focus on something new and shiny as the appropriate way forward. The assumption is that what we have does not work, necessitating a different vision. It’s that perceived weakness that lures advocates into the fray, anxious to take advantage of the disarray to push their own agendas. [Single-payer advocates fit the example.]
It is a temptation that needs a full-court resistance. Vermont’s health care system does not need to be dismantled. What it needs is to be stabilized.