(Host) Governor Jim Douglas is urging President Obama and congressional leaders to consider incorporating many of Vermont’s health care initiatives into a new national reform plan.
Douglas traveled to Washington ( today / yesterday ) to present his ideas as part of the national debate over a new health care reform bill.
VPR’s Bob Kinzel reports.
(Kinzel) Douglas enters this debate wearing several different hats. He’s the incoming chairman of the National Governors Association. He’s the head of the NGA’s health care committee. And he’s the governor of a state that has implemented a health care reform plan.
Douglas spent a whirlwind day in Washington meeting with members of the House Republican caucus, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Vice President Biden and President Obama.
Speaking from the Washington airport at the end of the day, Douglas said his goal is to urge the president and Congress to find a bipartisan approach to this issue.
(Douglas) "This is an economic and fiscal imperative. We have to reform the way we deliver health care to make sure we don’t disadvantage state spending on programs like education and to make our nation more competitive in a world economy. I think the broad bipartisan commitment of the governors across America will be helpful in accomplishing some reform this year."
(Kinzel) Douglas says he promoted Vermont’s Catamount Health Care plan, the state’s chronic care initiative and its Blueprint for Health as a model for a new federal approach.
(Douglas) "I told the president, the vice president and the secretary of Health and Human Services that we’ve been able to realize some actual success. When we look to extend our Medicaid waiver next year we’ll be able to show hundreds of millions of dollars of savings below the cap that we negotiated with the federal government in 2005. What we’re doing in Vermont really works."
(Kinzel) Rather than focus on their disagreements, including the creation of a new public health insurance plan that he opposes, Douglas is urging lawmakers to focus on the many principles that they agree on.
(Douglas) "We have to bring down the cost of care. We have to reform the way we deliver it. We have to ensure that Medicare is a part of the strategies of prevention and education and reform. We have to make sure that states have the opportunity to experiment, to be the laboratories of democracy. We have to make sure there are no mandates that put states at a disadvantage. Those are the key elements of reform and I think there’s broad agreement on those."
(Kinzel) Douglas says he’s hopeful that Congress will pass a bipartisan reform package by the end of the year.
For VPR News, I’m Bob Kinzel in Montpelier