This biennium our goals for health care are finding ways to control costs, helping small businesses afford private coverage for their workers, and making government-guaranteed insurance for children, seniors and working Vermonters sustainable. This also means assuring access to health care for every Vermont citizen. We will never control costs without universal access. Vermont deserves a health care system where small business men and women are not bankrupted by trying to treat their employees responsibly, and Vermont deserves a system where all Vermonters have access to health insurance and to quality care. First and most importantly, this is what Vermonters are asking for.
People are scared and rightly so.
The working class people should never be put in this position of choosing between food and medicine. We at Tivoly are looking at an uncertain future at the moment. Secondly, this Legislature is a blend of the political spectrum that working together can craft a balanced and thoughtful plan for ending the uncertainty, insecurity and sacrifice voiced by those Tivoly employees. This need not be a partisan issue. On every legislator's desk I've distributed an article from the October issue of the Atlantic Monthly which talks of an extraordinary meeting between Rep. Jim McCrery, a conservative Republican from Shreveport, Louisiana, and Rep. Jim McDermott, a liberal Democrat from Seattle, Washington.