Vermont for Single Payer

11/30/2025

11/29/2025

https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/federal-worker-health-insurance-fehb-premiums-increases/
“Average premium payments in the federal government’s insurance program for its employees are set to jump more than 12% next year, on top of a 13.5% hike in 2025. The two-year increase is higher than many private employers and their workers are experiencing.”

Average premium payments in the federal government’s insurance program for its employees are set to jump more than 12% next year, on top of a 13.5% hike in 2025. The two-year increase is higher than many private employers and their workers are experiencing.

11/28/2025

https://vtdigger.org/2025/11/26/medicare-advantage-plans-are-leaving-vermont-now-what/
“Thousands of Vermonters face the loss of Medicare Advantage plans and must navigate through a muddle of insurance regulations before open enrollment ends on December 7.”

Thousands of Vermonters face the loss of Medicare Advantage plans and must navigate through a muddle of insurance regulations before open enrollment ends on December 7.

11/28/2025

https://www.thestreet.com/retirement/how-artificial-intelligence-controls-your-health-insurance-coverage
• Health insurers use AI algorithms to decide coverage for recommended treatments and services.
• Quick AI decisions may prioritize insurer profits, sometimes resulting in high error and denial rates.
• Patients, providers, and advocates should actively challenge denials, as appeals often succeed.

Broadcast Retirement Network's Jeffrey Snyder discusses the use of Artificial Intelligence in the Health Insurance Claims Process with Indiana University

11/27/2025

Americans are buckling under medical bills. It could get worse.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/27/medical-bills-debt-charity-obamacare-medicaid-00669834
“Charities that help people cover their medical bills say they’re seeing an alarming increase in requests for help.
“Worse yet, they say, it’s coming even before cuts to Medicaid in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act take effect and the potential expiration of Obamacare subsidies at year’s end. The charities are warning of exploding medical debt and lower survival rates for diseases like cancer if Congress doesn’t act.”

Charities that help people pay for care say demand is way up. That’s before scheduled Medicaid and Obamacare cuts take effect.

11/27/2025

Proposed federal bill to automatically enroll Medicare recipients in the lowest cost Medicare Advantage plan unless they affirmatively opt out
https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/5617927-congress-medicare-reform-dangers/
As a gerontologist who has helped countless older adults navigate the Medicare maze, I’ve seen how one enrollment decision can shape someone’s quality of life for decades. That’s why the new legislation before Congress, H.R. 3467, should alarm anyone who cares about protecting older Americans’ health and autonomy.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.) and introduced in May, would automatically enroll new Medicare beneficiaries into the lowest-premium Medicare Advantage plan available in their ZIP code unless they actively opt out. Even more troubling, it would lock them into that plan for three full years, limiting their ability to switch back to traditional Medicare or select a new plan except under narrowly defined hardship circumstances.

Many would find themselves stuck in private insurance plans they never chose, possibly unable to access trusted doctors, specialists or hospitals outside their network.

11/26/2025

Will they do anything effective, or just "something?"
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2025/nov/23/republicans-and-democrats-agree-us-health-care-cos/
Republicans and Democrats agree U.S. health care costs too much. Will they do anything about it?
“While some in the [Democratic] party pushed to make a “single-payer” system like Medicare available to all Americans, that idea faced opposition from many Democrats and all Republicans – not to mention the health insurance industry [emphasis added]– so they opted instead to use taxpayer money and government rules to steer people to private insurance companies.”

WASHINGTON – When the Senate Finance Committee met Wednesday for a hearing on the rising cost of health care in the United States, Republicans and Democrats agreed the problem has become a national crisis, but it didn’t take long for the parties to demonstrate why they’ve had such a hard time ...