Health Care Reform

Vermont’s latest legislation, Act 48 (H.202), was signed into law by Governor Shumlin in June, 2011. This law recognizes the economic and moral importance for Vermont to undertake fundamental reform of its health care system. Health care costs have been growing between 6.5 and 8.5 percent per year in recent years, at a time when growth in our economy was negligible. Act 48 puts Vermont on a path to a single payer system, but the state must take several additional steps to reach that goal. These include development of a financing plan that assures a single payer will cost less than the current system. To find out more information on Health Care Reform in Vermont, click here.

An easy-to-use flow chart that explains how different people will get coverage under the health reform law based on their income level and job status: http://healthreform.kff.org/the-basics/~/media/Files/KHS/Flowcharts/coverage_flowchart_3.pdf

 The National Center for Health Reform Implementation, maintained by the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP), offers links to AMCHP’s summary of the implementation status of MCH-related provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and AMCHP’s comments on various provisions of the health care reform law. Additional tools for understanding the impact of the ACA for various MCH populations are also available: http://www.amchp.org/Advocacy/health-reform/Pages/default.aspx