LETTER: If healthcare doesn’t need regulation, nothing does

July 1, 2026

To the Community:

Regarding the recent letter, “Vermont’s healthcare crisis is real; S.190 wasn’t the solution” (Waterbury Roundabout June 24). The authors, Clara Morrison and Alison Despathy, point to a successful example of referenced-based pricing for California’s public employee retirement system (CalPERS) in one paragraph, then parrots Gov. Ohil Scott’s complaint that, because S.190 applied only to Qualified Health Plans and Vermont Education Health Initiative plans, it left the majority of insured Vermonters outside its scope. But that’s just what the CalPERS example does.

We can no longer choose our own health care path or live here comfortably because we have the highest health insurance premiums in the USA, which is causing businesses and families to go broke or leave the state. All politicians tremble with fear when the Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems come anywhere near them, and bow to their pressure.

When my son went to university in Canada, he could walk into any hospital or see a doctor any time, anywhere, and walk out either with no invoice or a $15 charge. Meanwhile, my husband and I pay $34k in health insurance premiums plus deductibles for two preventive visits per year. That $34k covers all hospital costs and insurance administration that Medicare, Medicaid and uninsured Vermonters do not pay for. 

If the healthcare industry doesn’t need regulation, nothing does. Why do we protect the astronomical profits of insurance companies and UVM Medical Center’s bloated administration at the expense of regular working Vermonters now struggling under the weight of premiums that consume over 20% of our income?

Liz Curry

Burlington