Tens of thousands of Vermonters suffer from lack of access to health care and unaffordable health care costs. In fact, one in three Vermonters’ income is insufficient to address their medical costs. High premiums and out-of-pocket costs force many Vermonters to avoid seeing a doctor until their conditions are more serious. That threatens their health and, ultimately, their pocketbook.

Amanda Janoo is the only candidate for Governor with a detailed plan to address this by phasing in universal health care starting with universal primary care. Universal access to primary care will allow people to see doctors before their conditions worsen and become more costly. That will also lead to savings in hospital costs, with emergency rooms used for real emergencies rather than as a replacement for routine primary care.

Doing nothing is not a choice. With oncoming federal cuts to Medicaid, as well as cuts to premium subsidies and rising out of pocket costs in employee health care, we cannot put our heads in the sand. We need a new approach, or we will face an even more dire situation.

We often hear that “single payer” failed in Vermont. This is not the case! We never implemented it. Phasing it in is the right choice. Let’s cut out the insurance company middlemen starting with primary care for all. Other candidates in this race may talk about “universal primary care,” but plan to leave private insurance in the mix. After decades of fiddling with the private insurance system, we have learned that this approach will never work to control costs or create universal access.

We can start by choosing Amanda Janoo on primary day in August.

Ellen Oxfeld
Middlebury