Friday, May 26, 2006
Vermont's governor signed a statement on Thursday that would make the state the second in the nation with near-universal health coverage insurance by extending care to as much as 97 percent of its residents by 2010.
The law comes a month after neighboring Massachusetts approved the nation's first near-universal health-care reform plan that aims to provide insurance to about 96 percent of the state's half-million uninsured residents by 2009.
Both plans reflect state efforts to tackle growing concerns over health care with 47 million Americans uninsured, conventional employer-based coverage shrinking and the cost of insurance premiums steadily rising.
Vermont's legislation, signed by Gov. James Douglas at a ritual at the state's second-largest hospital, aims to decrease the ranks of uninsured - about 11 percent of the state's 621,000 residents - while also streamlining care given to those with coverage.
A new subsidized health-care plan called Catamount Health would be offered by insurance companies and salaried for in part with a hike in the state's cigarette tax and a fee on employers who do not present health insurance to their workers.
It will provide health insurance similar to that offered to state employees, taking nearly 25,000 people off the rolls of the uninsured, backers of the legislation say.
"This is potentially a national model," said Kenneth Thorpe, an Emory University professor and health-care advisor who helped create Vermont's reforms.
In Vermont, insurers can begin contribution the new plan from July 1, 2007, but some benefits will be phased-in sooner.
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