MODERN HEALTH CARE / AP: …The state has a planned 2017 launch of the nation’s first universal healthcare system, a sort of modified Medicare-for-all that has long been a dream for many liberals…
In such a setting, Vermont’s plan looks more and more like an anomaly. It combines universal coverage with new cost controls in an effort to move away from a system in which the more procedures doctors and hospitals perform, the more they get paid, to one in which providers have a set budget to care for a set number of patients…
Where some governors have backed off the politically charged topic of healthcare, [Gov. Peter] Shumlin recently surprised many by digging more deeply into it. In an interview with a newspaper’s editorial board, he reversed himself somewhat on earlier comments that Vermont would wait to figure out how to pay for the new system. He said he expects a payroll tax to be a main source of funding, giving for the first time a look at how he expects the plan to be paid for… (more)
Here is a site that has more details on Vermont’s plan. I believe Massachusetts is moving in that direction also as the current system is not sustainable.
http://gmcboard.vermont.gov/sites/gmcboard/files/GMCB%20Dashboard%20Costs%20and%20Expenditures.pdf
EDITOR: That is really good to know. Perhaps it will go the way of medical marijuana whereby as states begin to adopt a better approach, others will follow and ultimately the national government.