Sounds about right. 💀

I assume this is part of the push to make being a lawmaker in VT lucrative enough that doing so won’t cause a large financial burden. As it stands only people who are currently doing well financially or have other financial help can afford to spend so much time at the capitol.

Great. So how do you pay for it?

What if we give them the state's average income, and the average level of Healthcare? If they want more, they can bring up the average.

That is something I'd support.

Legislators should be commended for being the guinea pigs to test the system first. If all goes well, program will be offered to other Vermonters, once trickle down kicks in.

Volunteer EMS and firefighters should be given free health insurance.

They're actually way underpaid. It's a problem. The only way you can afford to be a lawmaker is if you have a good source of $$$ from elsewhere. If we paid them the state's average income, they'd all get a well-deserved raise.

Legislators make less $$$ than teenage pizza cooks. It's why the legislature has long been dominated by old-ass rich people who can afford to work for nearly nothing. They're bringing the state's average income down right now.

That is Bs i am pay more for insurance now then any other time in my life oh i for got to mention I just was forced to by the federal government i hit the magic number 65.

Exactly. Gov Shumlin, in private, used to say that all of the legislators were r****ds and retirees. His language was terrible but the underlying point was that, at the current level of pay for legislators, we aren’t attracting our best and brightest.

Are you aware of how much they are paid?

I now respect him more.

Everyone should have health care that's free to use.

Insuring just legislators would probably be "expensive". Enacting Medicare for All nationally would save $300 billion a year. When Shumlin killed single-payer here, the report he commissioned showed that even in the worst case projections, the overwhelming majority of Vermonters would have come out ahead, something like paying $4 in taxes to save $5 in premiums. The case is even better now that for-profit health care costs have grown exponentially in the 10 years since then.

So the answer is - easily! Keeping the status quo is the fiscally irresponsible choice.

I'm sure you're right. We should kill two birds with one stone and guarantee universal health care for all. We'd save money, help real people in a material way, and allow regular people to serve in the legislature.

Same 😂

We wouldn’t save money. As a stand alone state with free healthcare we would be a magnet for healthcare tourism and we would be bankrupted.

Vt cannot go it alone on universal healthcare.

Except most of vermont healthcare is not for profit, including out major insurers blue cross and MVP. If you have a link to Shumlins study, I’d like to see it. I don’t remember the numbers working the way you do.

Perhaps people don’t remember when Schumlin tried and after a couple years finally had to admit universal healthcare was too expensive for a state with VT ‘s revenue to afford.

It’s a good goal and I am sure it will be relitigated ever 10 years or so. Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it and until there is a significant change on cost or state revenue, it will still end with it being too expensive.

*dude replied then blocked me.

Anyway, his claim is false which is why he has not produced a report.

How much?

I can find 750 a week during session. 508 a week for lodging m/t/w/th And 345 a week for food.

That’s 1603 a week but they only work maybe 6 months and can’t live in Montpelier year round because they need to live where they serve.

So they make about 83k per year but can only work part time so 42k per year and need to maintain two separate living locations to participate.

They get $743/week during the session. The session runs from January to April, with the exact end date varying based on the progress of legislation, governor vetos, etc. They are in regular session four days a week, not five, so your lodging math is off. They only get lodging if they stay in Montpelier - most commute and therefore do not get that.

Their pay is below the state average for salaries and is seasonal with no benefits. This is why it tends to be a bunch of fairly well-off people that can afford to be away from their regular jobs. Just this year a state rep lost her job because her employer was not willing/able to let her be away to serve.

The lodging math is based on 4 days a week. (127x4 =508)

I think we are both saying the same thing, which is they don’t make enough to have this be their only job.

I agree!

My error - I miscalculated the lodging

It’s been many years since I looked at the numbers for the system that was proposed, but my hazy recollection was that they were going to need something close to a 10% payroll tax, plus a bunch of other budgetary funds from other sources and even then it was only feasible to provide coverage that was equivalent to the 80% AV “gold” plans being offered on the health insurance exchange. Meaning people were still going to be on the hook for 20% of the cost of their care until a pretty high deductible was reached.

People at the time were mistakenly assuming it would be like the NHS in the UK or something and be an all you can eat, completely free buffet of healthcare. For many the payroll tax would have been more than what their contribution for employer sponsored benefits were, for slightly worse coverage.

This is a pretty good review of VT’s single payer attempt. https://www.vox.com/2014/12/22/7427117/single-payer-vermont-shumlin

Is Canada a magnet for healthcare tourism?

How could I have forgotten about Gruber and all that controversy. Looks like my memory of the financial aspects was charitably optimistic and the reality was even worse.

Kings, queens, nobles, and peasants.

That would be a good incentive for recruits.

My thoughts exactly. Altruism is great but I believe we need more incentives to get more volunteers. It would be cheaper as well for rural towns.

Fair enough, and very easy to fix: make health care free at the point of use for year-round VT residents.

I was using "for profit" as shorthand for the status quo private system. As for the report, I'm on my phone now, but it's ready enough to Google: I'm taking about the report Shumlin waved in his hand when he announced he was killing universal healthcare.

The report Shumlin waved around at the press conference showed that for the overwhelming majority of Vermonters, they would have come out ahead with single-payer, even in the worst-case projections. He lied about that, and compliant media just transcribed and repeated his quotes, instead of writing from the document he held in his hand.

[deleted]

With the scarcity and cost of housing here I don’t think any healthcare “tourists” are going to find anywhere to claim residency.