New Report Says Universal Primary Care Could Work for Vermont

Lawmakers and administration officials abandoned their push for a single-payer health care system over a year ago. Advocates of a publicly funded program haven’t given up on the concept, however, and a new report could re-ignite a debate over whether to socialize portions of the health care system in Vermont.

Dr. Deb Richter is head of Vermont Health Care for All, and was among the leading proponents of single-payer health care in Vermont. When the proposal fell off the rails, she proposed an alternative: instead of publicly funding the entire $5 billion health care system, the state could start with just primary care.

“Every other country that has a strong primary care infrastructure has been shown to lower their overall costs and improve their indicators, like life expectancy and infant mortality,” Richter says.

Richter and others convinced lawmakers to spend $100,000 to study the idea. Last week, the Shumlin administration unveiled a report detailing cost estimates for a universal, publicly funded system of primary care, and Richter says it reinforces the case for moving forward.

“I’ve always said if it were a drug we’d never think twice about investing in it,” Richter says. “You get such good value for the money.” The report pegs annual costs of universal primary care at a little north of $280 million a year, assuming no out-of-pocket costs for people when they go to see a doctor. If policymakers wanted to provide better reimbursement rates for primary care doctors, then the price could go as high as $415 million annually.