In Vermont, Where Almost Everyone Has Insurance, Many Can't Find or Afford Care

[erronis]

https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/vermont-low-uninsured-rate-high-costs-long-waits/

On a warm autumn morning, Roger Brown walked through a grove of towering trees whose sap fuels his maple syrup business. He was checking for damage after recent flooding. But these days, his workers’ health worries him more than his trees’.

The cost of Slopeside Syrup’s employee health insurance premiums spiked 24% this year. Next year it will rise 14%.

The jumps mean less money to pay workers, and expensive insurance coverage that doesn’t ensure employees can get care, Brown said. “Vermont is seen as the most progressive state, so how is health care here so screwed up?”

Vermont consistently ranks among the healthiest states, and its unemployment and uninsured rates are among the lowest. Yet Vermonters pay the highest prices nationwide for individual health coverage, and state reports show its providers and insurers are in financial trouble. Nine of the state’s 14 hospitals are losing money, and the state’s largest insurer is struggling to remain solvent. Long waits for care have become increasingly common, according to state reports and interviews with residents and industry officials.

[GiqueCee]

1. I am not a native Vermonter...

... but I got here as fast as I could (48 years ago), and I've been a patient with the same primary clinic for 38 years. But I know people who cannot get care because most practices won't take on any new patients.
The putrid stench of private equity pervades the healthcare landscape nationwide, and the Green Mountain State is not immune. Those people – and I use the term loosely – adopted their business model from the Mafia, and they're no different than those they chose to imitate; they just have better tailors, and employ lawyers instead of leg breakers.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Adding a link

Health Brief
Nearly all Vermonters have health insurance, but care is tough to find

Analysis by Phil Galewitz and McKenzie Beard
November 20, 2024 at 7:27 a.m. EST
Health Brief
The Washington Post’s essential guide to health policy news

Good morning! I’m Phil Galewitz, a senior correspondent at KFF Health News who writes about Medicaid and state health insurance coverage trends. Please send story tips to [e-mail].

Today’s edition: A look at President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The unusual legal skirmish unfolding behind the Biden administration’s push to loosen federal marijuana restrictions. But first …

Vermont’s high coverage rate doesn’t necessarily equal affordability

Policymakers have long focused on increasing the number of residents insured, thinking it would help Vermont hospital finances and patient care. It hasn’t always worked. (iStock)

Almost all people have health insurance in Vermont, a state famed for its maple syrup and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, yet residents pay the nation’s highest insurance premiums for individual coverage and endure months-long waits for care — and most hospitals here are losing money, according to state reports and interviews with residents and industry officials.

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KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism.

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