By Gene Bifano
In Act 48, Vermont's will fail health care law, we find that the law intends to take over Medicare for those unfortunate seniors that live in Vermont. In fact, the state has already petitioned the government to do just that. Green Mountain Care needs the Medicare funds to work. If they can't get the feds to fork over the funds, they then plan to force seniors to buy their supplemental insurance from the state's sole vendor and it is not AARP. (pg. 85 f.) Also in the law they, the commissars of health care, will tell you what drugs you will be able to take -- see below.
Talk about corruption and crony capitalism -- pardon me Socialism.
So what does this mean to us? Can we travel and have the Vermont Medicare stand in place of the federal Medicare? Will Vermont's version of Medicare be accepted everywhere with the same doctor and hospital as Medicare when we travel? If we want to use a hospital or doctor in another state will that work?
My guess is no! If the feds give the the money, they also give us the processing and payment part as well. Oh! the law specifies that we do the processing and payments. How's the current Greem Montain Care working so far?
It won't be Medicare it will be VTCare or whatever they come up with. As most readers know insurance companies and Medicare have agreements with all the doctors, hospitals and practioners to set fees, process claims and make payments. Green Mountain Care couldn't even develop a system that basically sold 12 products and made payments to two companies. (Blue Cross and MVP)
What if you move to another state, will you get VTCare or Medicare? Act 48 says that you have to notify VTCare when you move to another state within 60 days so they can take you off its plan. So will you then get Medicare? Don't think so, the feds gave your Medicare money to Vermont.
How about the commissar deciding what drugs we can and will have from what vendors. We have problems sometimes with our insurers in regards to drug formulary. What recourse will we have with a government struggling with cost and an ideology?
Below is a section of Act 48. If you were to read the act in its entirety, to the average reader it looks like a high school paper promising mom and apple pie. It's a bunch of meaningless, but well-intentioned words that will destroy Vermont.
We know this because we can't pay for our education system in its current form. (Act60/68) If it weren't for out-of-staters who pay from anywhere between 40 to 60 percent of that nutty system cost, the system would collapse. Now we have another nutty program that we cannot pay for -- Act 48.
Read these excerpts:
Act 48
Page 12 of 141 - The director, in collaboration with the agency of human services,
shall obtain waivers, exemptions, agreements, legislation, or a combination
thereof to ensure that, to the extent possible under federal law, all federal
payments provided within the state for health services are paid directly to
Green Mountain Care. Green Mountain Care shall assume responsibility for
the benefits and services previously paid for by the federal programs, including
Medicaid, Medicare, and, after implementation, the Vermont health benefit
exchange.
They will prescribe your prescription based on discounts and cost. Really is this what we want?
Pg 123 A single prescription drug formulary to be used by all payers of
health services which allows for some variations for Medicaid due to the
availability of rebates and discounts and which allows health care professionals
prescribing drugs purchased pursuant to Section 340B of the Public Health
Service Act to use the 340B formulary.
In 1215, the Magna Carta was the beginning of the dissolution of serfdom which finally ended in 1530. Yet 900 years later we have become serfs of the state of Vermont. The state owns us. The Magna Carta also placed the ink under the law of the land. Again 900 years latter the governor of Vermont decided he is above the law by not releasing the financial terms of the new health care disaster as required by Act 48. Why? The financial statements and other important aspects of the law from the adminstration was due in January 2013 to be presented to the House and Senate. It is now October 2014!
It is bad enough the Legislature voted to put us back into serfdom, but to allow the governor to disregard the law they struggle to cobble together is unacceptable. Can we trust a Legislature that fails to take the governor to task for disobeying the law, irrespective of party affiliations? What has happened to ethical behavior?
My thought is that we need a change in Montpelier, a total change. We need to stop and reset the clock. We need fresh and new ideas to solve our economic problems and ethical issues. There are solutions to our problems if we strip out ideology and politics. Folks keep this in mind, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled the government could not forbid private insurance three years ago. Since that time private insurance and health care facilities have grown exponentially. What are we missing here?
Bifano lives in Warren.
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