(Host) Advocates say they plan to turn out next week for a health care reform forum that Governor Jim Douglas is co-hosting.
Douglas and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick agreed to hold the forum on behalf of the White House.
The group Vermont Health Care for All says President Obama should consider a single-payer insurance plan.
Doctor Deb Richter is one of the organizers.
(Richter) “The publicly financed, single-payer, Medicare-for-all program is what the majority of people have said in poll after poll that they want. And, yet this is not even an option on the table. With the Obama summit, any of the health summits that they’ve had so far, discussions. And we want it brought to the table as a viable option to be discussed.”
(Host) Governors Douglas and Patrick expect to hear from a variety of advocates about what should be included in national health care reform.
Richter says she’s been invited to make a presentation. But she’s also helped to organize health care professionals from around the region to rally outside the forum.
She says there’s evidence that a single payer system would help control costs for insurers and consumers.
(Richter) “So it’s taking more money out of the household budgets, increasing premiums and out-of-pocket payments. So there’s a lot of layers to this, the economic layer and also the moral layer, the fact that people are doing without insurance or doing without coverage – people with high deductibles, etc.”
(Host) Next week’s health forum will be held on Thursday afternoon at the University of Vermont. The governors plan to draft a report for the president summarizing health reform efforts in New England.