Healthcare

Meagan Gallagher, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Vermont Action Fund, explains that Republicans plans to defund Planned Parenthood threaten access to basic health care for thousands of Vermonters. Republican legislation would prevent Planned Parenthood from accepting payments from low-income and disabled patients who have Medicaid for health insurance (more than 50 percent of Planned Parenthood patients in Vermont have Medicaid for health insurance), and cut funding for being a designated family planning provider.

Brenda Patoine explains why it's so important to organize to save our healthcare as Trump and the Republican Congress are pushing to ram through an agenda which takes healthcare away from 30 million Americans, privatizes Medicare, and defunds Planned Parenthood, while giving tax cuts to their millionaire and billionaire friends. She shares how the Affordable Care Act turned her into a healthcare activist.

Judy Solomon, a Senior VP for Health Care Policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, explains that the Republican plan to repeal most of the Affordable Care Act without replacing it would double the number of uninsured people to roughly 59 million. The vast majority of people becoming uninsured would be in working families. 35,000 fewer people in Vermont would have health insurance.

Ellen Schwartz, of the Healthcare is Human Right campaign, explains that once again, MVP Healthcare and Blue Cross Blue Shield are attempting to raise health insurance rates for people with Vermont Health Connect plans. BCBS is proposing an average annual increase of 8.2%, with per-plan increases ranging up to 10.9%, while MVP Healthcare is proposing an average annual increase of 8.8%, with per-plan increases ranging up to 13.5%.

Dr. Leslie Matthews, Vermont State Employees Association Legislative Committee Chair, and state employee retiree Tony Smith discuss the State Employees Agenda for Good Government . VSEA members have overwhelmingly endorsed an ambitious legislative agenda for the upcoming 2014 session.