Reply #: Actually

[Nicholas_J]

I have been following Dean and all of the "morphing" of his health care plan for almost a year now. Deans plan started out by simply extending Medicaid to those younger than 55 (allowing them to buy into it), and allowing those older than that to buy into Medicare (You know that program he said was the worse federal program ever created). Nothing more. As the fiscal realiteis of this hit, and as other candidates started bringing out their plans, Deans and his campaign managers realized that he was actually going to have to come up with a real plan, rather than poorly constructed campaign hype, because if you examine the stats for Vermont, Dean did nothing in Vermont to provide health insurace to those without coverage, other than to do what changes in the Medicaid programs allowed him to do, using medicaid ss1115 exemptions. Other states did the same thing, and is is simply the fact that when Dean came to office as governor, Vermont already had one of the lowest rates of uninsured people in the nation. Not one Vermonter ever received health insurance by any decision or legislation proposed by Howard Dean.

If you take an average of the four years prior to Dean coming to office, the rates of uninsured were LOWER in Vermont before he became governor. For many years under Dean, the rate of uninsured was as much as 45 percent higher than it was in the best years prior to his becoming governor. One year the uninsured rate in Vermont, under Dean, was the highest in the years between 1987 and 2001, reaching 13 percent.

Dean actually seems to have had no plan, but by getting into the race early, and asserting that he actually did something in Vermont has simply made the lie true by repetition. Or at least many people actually assume he did something, when he did nothing at all.

All of the programs that exist in Vermont, Such as VSCRIPT, and Dr Dynasaur were created several years before Dean was elected, and actually provided higher levels of service than they had during much of Deans tenure as governor, as he was continually cutting the budget to these programs.

IN the end, Deans trying to create something out of temporary federal waivers ended in his sending a budget to the state that cut out:

The Dean budget for FY 2003 is $891 million in state spending, one percent more than the state expects to spend this fiscal year but nearly 3% less than the budget passed last year ($916 million). Revenues this year are expected to be $50 million below budget. Dean wants to use the "Rainy Day" fund to cover some of the $50 million shortfall but does not want to tap that fund for FY 2003. Next year’s budget is based on revenue estimates of $893 million.

If passed as presented, Dean’s budget would:

Eliminate the VScript Expanded Program.

Reduce the Vermont Health Access Plan pharmacy benefit.

Increase the co-pay up to $750/year for medicines under both the VScript and VHAP pharmacy programs. (Those eligible now pay only a few dollars for each filled prescription).

Eliminate the Medicaid dentures, chiropractic and podiatry programs.

Reduce the adult dental programs (cover pain and suffering only, not preventative care).

Add a 50% co-pay to adult vision programs.

Add a $250 co-pay per admission to VHAP inpatient hospital benefit.

Reduce the hospital outpatient payment by 10%.

Establish a hospital outpatient co-pay of $25.

These cuts would save about $27 million, $11 million in state money. Few advocates for the elderly are happy with the budget and have vowed to restore the money lost to these programs. A coalition of over a dozen advocacy groups held a rally and press conference at the Capitol building to denounce the budget cuts.

http://vnavt.com/vahhavoicewinter2002.htm


The Senate opposed Dean, and provided a budget that restored many of these programs. Dean was also offered an alternative that would raise taxes on the wealthiest Vermonters by about 2 percent ( of their income (after federal taxes and other deductions), in order to save all of the programs. But Dean sided with the Vermont House, dominated by Republicans, and insisted that the rich were already taxes too much.