Vermont's governor announced Wednesday that the state will be trashing its plan to set up a single-payer health care system under the Affordable Care Act. The plan would have made Vermont the first state in the country with a universal and publicly funded health care system.
Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin said the decision was made largely because, in order to fund it, the state would be required to considerably increase taxes, and it would be too much for the state to handle. He called it the biggest disappointment of his career, reported The Associated Press.
"I am not going to undermine the hope of achieving critically important health care reforms for this state by pushing prematurely for single payer when it is not the right time for Vermont," Shumlin said in a statement Wednesday. "In my judgment, now is not the right time to ask our legislature to take the step of passing a financing plan for Green Mountain Care."
According to an analysis run by his administration, funding the government-run health care system would require an 11.5 percent payroll tax increase for businesses and a new income tax of up to 9.5 percent, reported the AP.
Shumlin said his team explored all known possibilities for alternative health care designs, but simply couldn't come up with a plan to provide quality coverage at a reasonable price.
"The bottom line is that, as we completed the financing modeling in the last several days, it became clear that the risk of economic shock is too high at this time to offer a plan I can responsibly support for passage in the Legislature," the governor said.
Other contributing factors include the reality that Vermont has not fully recovered from the recession, and recently downgraded its revenue forecast by $75 million. Shumlin also said his team found that Vermont would get $150 million less in federal help than they had previously anticipated, and also $150 million less in Medicaid assistance.
