Vermont for Single Payer

09/02/2025

09/01/2025

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/insurance/your-medicare-part-d-costs-are-about-to-skyrocket-here-s-why/vi-AA1LtLr2?ocid=winp1taskbar&pc=oneClick&cvid=9e4a371c610b4806de3f7232dad2cb88&ei=13

Medicare Part D premiums could surge by $50 monthly in 2026 due to rising drug costs and reduced federal funding.

08/31/2025

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama-health-forum/fullarticle/2834281?utm_source=postup_jn&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=article_alert-jama-health-forum&utm_content=mostreadwidget&utm_term=082925
“Mortality rates decreased more slowly in the US than in other high-income countries (HICs) between 1980 and 2019,1 resulting in growing numbers of excess US deaths compared with other HICs.”

This cohort study examines trends in excess deaths in the US before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

08/30/2025

https://www.samessenger.com/opinion/editorials/lets-stop-making-the-problem-worse/article_997e01f7-77bd-4bfc-ab2b-93214217856a.html
“In 2022, 2023, and 2024, BCBSVT requested large, double-digit rate increases in these markets, ranging from 11.4% to 22.9%, and the Company’s reserves plummeted, dropping $24.4 million in 2022, $23.8 million in 2023, and $29.3 million in 2024. Yet from 2021 to 2024, BCBSVT increased the salaries of its CEO and VP/Treasurer by approximately 38% and 40%, respectively. It also paid its executives approximately $280,000 in retention incentives, $910,600 in affiliation/project incentives, and $1,852,275 in variable compensation ($3.04M in total).”

It’s axiomatic that when things get bad, you try your best not to make them worse. The logic does not need explaining. Or shouldn’t. The bigger the offense, the more

08/30/2025

https://progressive.org/latest/the-consolidation-crisis-scialla-20250825/?mc_cid=f2ffbdf59f&mc_eid=6f6d1a80a2
“On the surface, little had changed—except the logo. A pair of familiar symbols now intertwined in sleek corporate colors, stamped beneath the slogan: “Together, for the future of care.”
“The rebrand, according to multiple press releases, signals innovation, progress, and unity—values which ostensibly drove the recent hospital merger in my hometown, Allentown, between Lehigh Valley Health Network and Jefferson Health, a larger health system based in Philadelphia. But beneath the PR polish, daily life at the hospital tells a different story: Patient quotas, strict dress codes, and a top-down management style are reshaping the workplace, turning a once mission-driven institution into a tightly controlled corporate machine. ”

Mergers, money, and the erosion of patient-centered care.

08/29/2025

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-26/unitedhealth-ongoing-criminal-probe-is-broader-than-medicare?embedded-checkout=true
“The US Justice Department’s criminal division is digging into UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s prescription management services as well as how it reimburses its own doctors under an ongoing probe into the firm’s operations, according to people familiar with the matter.
“The previously unreported areas of the probe show the scrutiny is broader than was known and goes beyond an inquiry into possible Medicare fraud. Investigators are looking into business practices at the company’s pharmacy benefit manager Optum Rx, in addition to the physician payments, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing a confidential matter.”

The US Justice Department’s criminal division is digging into UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s prescription management services as well as how it reimburses its own doctors under an ongoing probe into the firm’s operations, according to people familiar with the matter.

08/28/2025

https://www.timesargus.com/opinion/letters/law-threatens-health-care/article_7f86fdb0-3e75-4b71-9481-935724e8444f.html
Think Medicaid has no impact on you if you aren’t on it? That’s a serious misconception. The $2.3 billion Medicaid feeds into Vermont’s health care system amounts to 27% of all health care spending in the state. Some 62% of that currently comes from the federal government. If that essential funding stops for 45,000 people, health care providers won’t get paid when all those now-uninsured people seek care. To compensate, most will likely raise prices for everyone else, including you. That’s not a sustainable solution.
These cuts will add serious strains to our already strained hospitals, which are already dropping services they deem unprofitable. What additional services will become unavailable, at which hospitals, affecting everyone, including people who do have insurance?
Did the people who concocted these new rules understand the consequences beyond those for the individuals losing coverage? Perhaps that is why they timed them to take effect after the midterm elections, so voters would be lulled into thinking all the naysayers were exaggerating or even making up the harms.
Please spread the word. Tell your friends and relatives, especially those in states where their elected officials voted for this huge disaster. Do what you can to push our elected officials to fix this.

Medicaid pays for the health care of some 119,000 Vermonters. Vermont Agency of Human Services estimates 45,000 of them will end up uninsured as a result of the misnamed “One