“As a first year Legislator I was assigned to the Healthcare Committee the year that the Legislature was making a push for a Single Payer Healthcare plan.  The goals were to make Vermont Healthcare high quality, affordable, and accessible to all.

So what’s the result of that well meaning but misguided legislation for Vermonters eight years later? Higher premiums, higher deductibles, and longer waiting periods for appointments and surgeries. The cost of my healthcare personally has doubled in cost and our deductible has risen substantially. To put it bluntly, we are farther behind on making healthcare affordable and accessible for tax burdened Vermonters. 

What we need in Vermont is to get back to letting doctors and patients have more say in their healthcare choices, and to allow more competition between insurance providers, ideally allowing more out of state insurance companies to have sell their insurance in Vermont. “

• Vicki Strong

In 2016, just 5 years after passing landmark legislation touting a route to single-payer healthcare, Vermont had a new dubious distinction: having the highest health insurance premiums in the country!

Due to other states’ population issues, Vermont is no longer the highest premium award holder, but it still in the top handful, depending on who’s counting and how they do the figuring.

Something everyone can agree on is that monopolies in the healthcare arena are not good for patients, doctors and nurses, or taxpayers. When administrators and large corporations are the only parts of the supply chain who are winning, we all lose.

Vicki has been fighting for lower costs since day one, and you can be sure she will continue to do so at every opportunity.

Lowering the cost of healthcare for all Vermonters is critically important!
The increasing costs to patients in an already expensive state is not a sustainable future. Vicki will continue to fight for affordable healthcare for all.