In 2011, Vermont created Green Mountain Care, “a publicly financed health care program designed to contain costs and to provide comprehensive, affordable, high-quality health care coverage for all Vermont residents.”
But the initiative didn’t last long. Estimates suggested the program would cost between $1.6 and $2.5 billion in just its first year. To raise that money, proponents requested an 11.5% payroll tax on employers and a 9.5% income tax for individuals.
Vermont had also expected to receive federal support. But the feds didn’t deliver, as Baker explains, “leading to a projected shortfall of $300 million in federal funds, $150 million less in federal funds for the program than had been expected, on top of another $150 million less in federal Medicaid funds.”
No wonder then-Governor Shumlin scrapped Green Mountain Care just three years after signing it into law. In his words:
“Pushing for single payer health care when the time isn’t right and it might hurt our economy would not be good for Vermont and it would not be good for true health care reform. It could set back for years all of our hard work toward the important goal of universal, publicly-financed health care for all.”
Colorado can learn from Vermont — and from its own experience. In 2016, nearly 80% of Colorado voters rejected an amendment to establish universal health coverage through “ColoradoCare.” To fund the program, as Baker notes, “[T]he state would have had to raise taxes, cut services, raise copayments, lower health care provider payments, or some combination of all to cover the difference.”
Everywhere it’s tried, universal health care leads to higher costs for taxpayers. Colorado would save much time and energy by abandoning single-payer now
