BRATTLEBORO — Despite the efforts of Hilary F. Cooke [“Health-care letter misses the mark on all counts,” Jan. 16] and his cohort at the health insurance industry front organization Vermonters for Health Care Freedom to make it seem really complicated, single-payer health care remains a simple idea: one entity raises the revenue and pays the bills for health care across the state.
The Veterans Administration health-care system and Medicare are two very efficient examples, where our federal government is the single payer.
This simplicity is one of the sources of savings, as is the efficiency of having one set of standards for coverage rather than one for each insurance policy.
Apparently, Mr. Cooke is unaware of the process involved in insuring the health of school employees, or that insurers count on investments to earn money.
The Vermont Education Health Initiative (VEHI) is the large, nonprofit purchaser of health-care plans for Vermont's school employees. This self-funded, fully-insured purchasing trust is managed jointly by the Vermont School Boards Insurance Trust (VSBIT) and the Vermont-National Education Association (Vermont-NEA).
In their rate recommendation letter for approval by the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation and the Green Mountain Care board, VEHI stated, “The duration and severity of the economic recession has meant that the portion of VEHI's reserves invested in interest-bearing accounts has not earned what we hoped... The less we earn from investments, therefore, the fewer reserves we accumulate to defray costs.”
I hope Mr. Cooke finds this information helpful.