The Clavelle Health Plan: ACT 60 For Health Care

2000: Clavelle Says Single-Payer Is Obvious

Clavelle Has Said The Need For A Single-Payer, Government-Run, Taxpayer-Financed Health Care Is “More Obvious Than Ever.” “The need to implement a single-payer health care system is now more obvious than ever.” (Peter Clavelle, op-ed, The Burlington Free Press, 1/26/00)

2004: Clavelle Says Single-Payer Is Impossible

Although Nothing Has Changed Since 2000, Now Clavelle Says A Single-Payer Program Is Impossible. “The reality is as long as the federal government is in the business of offering coverage for a host of citizens of this country - retirees, military, Medicaid, medicare programs – we’re not going to have a single-payer system.” (Clavelle Press Conference, 9/15/04)

Clavelle Eliminates Choice In Favor Of Forced Participation

Clavelle Says The Maine Program’s Voluntary Participation Is A Drawback That He Will Avoid By Forcing Everyone To Take Part In His Program. “One of the principal drawbacks of Maine’s plan is that it is voluntary. And many are questioning how many employers will actually join—even with the sliding fee scale—when there remains the loophole of choosing to provide no coverage and relying on the cost shift. To achieve universal coverage, this cost-shift loophole has to be eliminated. Therefore, I will work with small businesses and other stakeholders to develop a program that starts as voluntary, but moves everyone to participate in three years.” (Clavelle Health Care Plan, 9/15/04)

Clavelle Claims No New Taxes For “Universal” Health Care.

Clavelle Claims He Can Ensure All 620,000 Vermonters Without Raising Taxes, In Fact, He Says Care Will Be Cheaper. “And I want to lead the state and I want this state to lead this country in providing universal health coverage, health coverage for everyone of us. Health coverage for 620,000 Vermonters. Everybody will be in. Nobody will be out and we can do it together. Everybody’s in. Small business, farmers, self-employed Vermonters. You name it, you will be covered by this plan. The Vermonters First plan will do this without raising taxes.” (Clavelle Press Conference, 9/15/04)

“I am not proposing a tax on insurance premiums.” (Clavelle Press Conference, 9/15/04)

Clavelle Actually Believes That Covering Everyone Will Be “Cheaper.” “And when all Vermonters are covered health care coverage is cheaper for everyone. That’s the premise, cover all Vermonters and health care is cheaper for all of us.” (Clavelle Press Conference, 9/15/04)

Dr. Dean And Expert Supporters Of “Univeral” Coverage Disagree.

Even Supporters of So-Called Universal Health Care Like Former Governor Dean Have Acknowledged It Means Higher Taxes and Health Care Rationing. “Paying for health care to cover every Vermonter will require increased taxes no matter how the program is designed, a range of experts, including Gov. Howard Dean, said Thursday. … A regulated, multi-payer system is better than a single-payer system like Canada’s, said Judith Lave, a professor of health in the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh. … She said any health care reform is doomed to fail unless people realize they will not get more health care for less money, she said. Instead, any type of universal care will require some rationing, she said.” (The Burlington Free Press, 3/19/93)

Clavelle Denies Government Taking $90 Million In Private Money Is Not Taxation. No Wonder Taxes In Burlington Are So High.

Clavelle Denies That Government Taking Money From Private Individuals And Companies Is A Tax.

Reporter 1: What is this source of new revenue then?

Clavelle: The source of new revenue and the details of the plan are discussed there – it’s called the savings offset premium. But there are costs that are marbled into the costs of health care in the state of Vermont today. And the costs of bad debt, the costs around providing charity care, and the costs when folks show up at the emergency room rather than the family doctor’s office to receive health care. It is projected that there are $90 million worth of costs that are embedded in the system that result in the bizarre cost shift that occur. The beauty of this plan …is to capture those savings which we’ll all benefit from by every Vermonter being covered and make those savings – a projected $90 million – available to provide the support, the incentive, the subsidy for individuals as well as small businesses to secure health coverage at a cost that they can afford.

Reporter 1: This is money that government would collect from health insurers and third party administrators.

Clavelle: No, this is money that is being paid now for health coverage that is going to be captured.

Reporter 2: How does it get captured? You pass a law that says that money is now Vermonters’?

Clavelle: The money is in the system now. In the absence of capturing this $90 million that is in the system what would occur is that insurance companies would say, ‘Thank you,” and would put the money into their pockets and their profits would be even higher than they are today. What this plan says is that we’re not going to allow those profits to walk away in the pockets fo the insurance companies and we’re going to capture those savings…

Reporter 1: But how does government capture that money?

Clavelle: The specifics are explained in the plan that you have before you and obviously the details as to how that’s captured have to be worked out, but we also are looking to the state of Maine as to the mechanism as to how that can occur.

Reporter 1: But government has to capture this money so it can be used. Correct?

Clavelle: That’s right.

Reporter 1: And when government captures money from a private individual or company, isn’t that called a tax.

Clavelle: No. It’s not a tax. No.