Editor’s note: This commentary is by Walter Carpenter, of Montpelier, who is a single-payer health care activist.
[O]n April 25, the Vermont House Committee on Health Care voted out S.53 by a narrow vote of 6-5. According to VTDigger, it represented a vote to “support a version of S.53 that explicitly endorses publicly financed primary care, available to Vermonters “without cost-sharing.”
I was among the spectators that crowded into the room for this historic discussion and vote. Emotions grew in my throat as I thought back to 2005-2006 when I almost died for lack of access to a primary care physician, something that this vote on S.53 would have easily addressed had it been the law then.
The disease was liver disease, from natural causes. Gallstones had formed in my bile ducts, the liver’s drainage pipes, causing toxins to poison me. A liver transplant seemed the only option for my survival so the quest for an appropriate liver began. The outcome looked grim; my skin was a sickly yellow, I was gaunt and hollowed out. In the words of a veteran nurse, I was “inches away.” My brush with death was terrifying. I did not know from one day to the next whether I would “make it.”
Re-orientating my thoughts back to the committee process, I heard Rep. Brian Cina, P-Burlington, eloquently say, “Whether or not this bill survives the rest of the process and becomes a law, I think today we need to make a decision that makes a policy statement.”
Then came the objections from the committee members voting no, the mimicking of Gov. Phil Scott’s mantra of “no new fees or taxes.” It is like this mantra of no new taxes or fees is more important than our lives. As someone who has been there before, I take this personally.
Rep. Anne Donahue, R-Northfield, the committee’s vice chair, was one of five to vote no. She justified her action by mentioning how Vermont has already embarked on a major reform effort — the all-payer/ACO model that makes “huge alterations to how money flows through the system.” Donahue was correct and I generally support this effort. But the ACO does not address our universal problem of access, the issue that caused me to almost reach the proverbial no return, even though the cure was a relatively simple one that was the equivalent of a medical plumbing operation.
Then, still drowning in emotion, I heard chair Bill Lippert, D-Hinesburg, summarize what he heard as the majority opinion, “I think it’s our responsibility as the state of Vermont to create every possibility for accessible, publicly financed health care for all Vermonters.”
My emotions jumped into exhilaration and almost exploded out of me into the committee room. My faith in humankind and love of this brave little state that is willing to buck the national trend burgeoned once again. This was all because of the incredibly modest, yet important, step towards primary care for all. Thank you, Vermont. As I know from experience, S.53 is not about taxes or fees, or how money flows through the system, but lives. It is about our lives.
