Vermont Catamount Health for $1 million less ?

Chairman of the National Governors Association (NGA), Vermont Governor Jim Douglas will lead the nation’s governors at their annual winter meeting in Washington this weekend. Healthcare availability and affordability one of Douglas’ focus points will be a subject of discussion at the gathering in Washington.

Vermont’s Catamount Health the public/private healthcare plan is one innovation Douglas often notes:

“I am proud of the steps we have taken in Vermont. My chairman’s initiative focuses on helping governors lead the way in improving the quality of our system, providing more insurance coverage and addressing key cost drivers to ensure we have a system that is affordable, accessible and accountable.” said Douglas in a press release prior to his trip to Washington.

The supposedly tightfisted governor's pride may be tempered somewhat from the findings of some research into Vermont’s Catamount Health plan. The plan established in 2007 included requirements for an outside efficiency study. Some results are quoted in the Burlington Free Press unfortunately no link to the study was provided.

The research results put forward that the Catamount Health could save $1 million a year if the state had been running it exclusively rather than the private/public arrangement that exists.

Researchers suggested if the same state office that administers Medicaid and the Vermont Health Access Program also ran Catamount, administrative costs would decrease by about $1 million a year.

Peter Sterling, executive director of the Vermont Campaign for Health Care Security Education Fund, called the researchers’ finding significant: “We have overpaid at least $2 million to let private insurance do what the state could have done.”

Stinkin' Truth ....Lake Champlain's Quadricentennial condition

Six years ago in 2003 Vermont's Governor Douglas declared "After more than a decade of discussion we can, and we must, act now." Now State Commerce Secretary Kevin Dorn says he wishes the environmental groups would stop drawing attention to a book by Peter Greenberg. The book in question is "Don't Go There!: The Travel Detective's Essential Guide to the Must-Miss Places of the World." in which he states "In 1999, two dogs died after ingesting Lake Champlain's blue-green algae-covered water. How bad is that? ... The water often looks cloudy and green and smells foul, due to algae blooms, and the depletion of the lake oxygen has affected fish ... Beaches along the lake are frequently closed in order to safeguard human and animal health ...." But wait there is more.Another group Secretary Dorn may wish would stop talking about he condition of the lake may be the press release from the U.S. Geological Survey(USGS) that states A variety of man-made chemicals has been found in the streams and wastewaters that discharge into Lake Champlain. The chemicals found include pesticides, fire retardants, fragrances, detergent degradates, and caffeine. The chemicals were found at extremely low concentrations, measuring a few parts per billion. The concentrations were highest in waters released by sewage treatment plants, combined sewer overflows and small urban streams. The lowest concentrations were in larger rivers, an undeveloped stream, and the lake. Although the concentrations were low, the significance of such a mixture in the environment is unknown. How these chemicals affect fish and human health at the levels found is not well understood and an area of ongoing research. All this on the heals of this summer's EPA report stating that the Vermont must do a better job in its clean-up efforts.This report caused an unusually angry response from the Governor and the EPA later backed off slightly perhaps under pressure. Several days after the kerfuffle The Burlington Free Press Outdoor column weighed in on the Lake or as the articles title says the stinkin' truth .Fisherman are right on the frontline line and see(and catch) the living prove of a troubled lake . The Governor's cheerleading rings more and more hollow as he tries to find squirm his way off this hook . The Lake is in trouble.Gov.Douglas's Clean and Clear program which debuted in 2003 is failing at either fast or slow speed. Is Champlain a disaster? Well, maybe not yet, but if we use Champlain's fish populations as our litmus test, something is surely amiss. And it does seem to be getting worse. We catch pike with these huge, ugly growths (lymphosarcoma) and we're bracing for the arrival of the fish-killing VHS disease, which, we've been glumly assured, will be here before you know it. The fishing can be good -- no doubt about it -- but there's a strange feel on Lake Champlain these days, as if nature is seriously whacked and careening in the wrong direction from which there will be no return. I have no idea whether Greenberg is a fisherman, but as far a truth-sayer? Well, he ain't far off. http://www.amazon.com/Dont-There-Detectives-Essential-Must-Miss/dp/1605299944http://www.burlingtonfreepress...

http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/a... http://www.burlingtonfreepress... http://governor.vermont.gov/to...