Vermont healthcare plan criticized by allies in the single-payer movement

Vermont's proposed healthcare reform falls short of the single-payer overhaul it's being billed as, the advocacy group Physicians for a National Health Program said Thursday.

The doctors group said the bill passed by the Vermont House of Representatives late last month falls "far short" of single-payer reform. The bill would create a public program open to all Green Mountain state residents by 2017 but would retain a role for private insurers.

"This would negate many of the administrative savings that could be attained by a true single-payer program," PNHP said in a statement, "and opens the way for the continuation of multi-tiered care."

The group also criticized the bill for not addressing long-term care coverage and for not proposing a "concrete funding plan" for the public plan.

Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin championed single-payer reform in his gubernatorial campaign last year. He defended the House-passed bill Thursday at an Atlantic event, saying it would be good for business because coverage would be paid for by public financing and no longer just those employers that provide it.

Shumlin said Vermont was able to get this far along in its reform efforts by focusing on the state's 150,000 underinsured residents who want coverage on which they can depend.

"They're not Democrats, they're not Republicans. They're just scared," Shumlin said. "They know that if they get sick, their goose is cooked."

He said he's asking administration officials and lawmakers for two "critical waivers" that will enable Vermont to become a laboratory for reform.

The first is bipartisan legislation, supported by President Obama, that would allow states to enact their own alternatives to the healthcare reform law starting in 2014. Shumlin also wants the Department of Health and Human Services Department to allow Vermont to pool its share of federal dollars into its single-payer system.