WEST BRATTLEBORO — The owners of Putney's much-loved Front Porch Café recently announced that they are closing their doors because of the recession, rising food costs and rent, shrinking income, etc.
As a lover of the food and warmth of this little café, I rushed over for a last meal. I ordered and then popped my favorite question, “Do you have health insurance for your five employees?”
“No!” they said. (I knew that few small businesses can afford it.)
Insurance is costing more, with rising premiums and bigger deductibles. Insurance companies exist to make profits; patients do not come first.
Many small businesses have dropped the costly coverage they once had. Employees are stuck and even worse off if laid off.
The Front Porch is now history. How many small businesses and their workers have suffered this fate since the economy tanked?
Vermont's single-payer system will eliminate the problem of employees who are uninsured or are laid off with no coverage. Coverage will be continuous and independent of employment.
Furthermore, those who wish to change jobs while insured by Green Mountain Care (GMC) will be covered between jobs. The private insurers (the middlemen) will no longer be able to sieve off millions in profits that can now help support Vermont's GMC.
It will take time for the state of Vermont to determine the funding needed before the plan is ready. Surely the United States of America, the richest country in the world, can learn the methods of many single-payer countries that effectively insure everyone at far less cost and have better outcomes than we do.
Vermont can show the nation the way in this era of fiscal austerity.