Vermont for Single Payer

06/13/2026

Imagine the premium savings if the deductible was $10 million!
Our downward spiral will continue until we stop fighting about who pays what portion of the unsustainable cost and figure out how to reduce the outrageous cost that needs to be divvied up.
https://vtdigger.org/2026/06/11/vermonts-largest-health-insurer-wants-to-offer-a-cheaper-plan-can-it-actually-help-vermonters/
“BlueCross estimates that premiums on the proposed plans, called Vermont Basic, would be somewhere between 5-9% lower than the current cheapest plans on Vermont Health Connect.
“But, the deductible for the Basic plans would be markedly higher. For a bronze Basic plan, the deductible could be $11,800, according to BlueCross. By comparison, the deductible for a bronze version of BlueCross’s existing cheapest plan on the marketplace is $9,000.”

BlueCross BlueShield of Vermont is mired in a back-and-forth awaiting regulatory approval for its low-premium, high-deductible “Basic” plans.

06/13/2026

06/11/2026

https://community.triblive.com/news/4068513
“I have been blessed with a principled employer who provides affordable healthcare. I live in a town that has exceptional hospitals and medical facilities. And we attract the smartest doctors, nurses and staff, because we have teaching hospitals.
“Staring at the ceiling this week gave me time to count all those blessings. It also drove home the fact that in the richest nation in the world — this land of plenty — many Americans do not have affordable healthcare, and their current government has been actively trying to keep them from getting it.”

I started this column earlier in the week while I was being treated in the intensive care unit at UPMC hospital in Pittsburgh. Fixing some of those things that need to be fixed gets tougher as you get older, but I am back on track now because I am a very lucky American.

06/10/2026

It’s Time To Take Down The Medical-Industrial Complex
Declaration of Independence from the Medical-Industrial Complex
https://popularresistance.org/take-down-medical-industrial-complex/
Clearing the FOG speaks with Dr. Ana Malinow of NationalSinglePayer.com about a new campaign: the Declaration of Independence from the Medical-Industrial Complex. Dr. Malinow also describes the current state of the US healthcare system, how it compares to other countries, and a new report on Moral Injury in physicians.

06/09/2026

https://jacobin.com/2026/05/democrats-medicare-for-all-donor-class
“Last week, the oligarch-funded Searchlight Institute, led by Sen. John Fetterman’s former top aide, got itself a headline proposing that Democrats coalesce around free primary care and around creating the public health insurance option that the party promised to create eighteen years ago and then dropped.
“In a vacuum, the initiatives are fine. Free primary care and a public insurer competing with private insurers would be better than the current health care dystopia (which is why I was an advocate for the latter eighteen years ago when it was on the legislative table!). And yes, the proposals are like many laudable Democratic bills in Congress that would incrementally improve the health care system.
“But this isn’t a vacuum — it’s a political arena. In context, the proposals can be properly read as an attempt to preemptively narrow the terms of the discourse and the parameters of what’s considered “politically possible” before Democrats even regain power.
“As he surges ahead in primary polls, Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Dr Abdul El-Sayed rightly called the proposal out for what it is — a cynical ploy.”

An oligarch-funded think tank is trying to undermine Medicare for All even before Democrats regain power. Candidates like Graham Platner and Abdul El-Sayed are rejecting the ploy.