FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 29, 2025

Coalition Forms to Combat High Cost of Vermont Healthcare

MONTPELIER, VT – An unlikely group of allied Vermonters have come together to stress that Vermont’s healthcare costs are unreasonably high. They say high costs have reached an emergency point and are hurting businesses, workers, and taxpayers. The group maintains Vermont spends so much on healthcare that we can reduce premiums without cutting patient care, if only dollars were better utilized.

Speaking at a kick-off press conference Wednesday, former governor Jim Douglas and business leader Lisa Ventriss told the media they were co-chairing the Leadership Council of a new organization: VT Healthcare 911 (vhc911.org). Other members include OnLogic founder Lisa Groeneveld, Smugglers’ Notch owner Bill Stritzler, Vermont-NEA President Don Tinney, Greg Marchildon with AARP-VT, Nicole DiVita the President for Healthcare of AFT Vermont, doctors, mental health providers and others.

"Vermont's premiums are double the national average," said Gov. Douglas. "We know this is hurting job growth and slowing our economy." Lisa Ventriss, former longtime head of the Vermont Business Roundtable, said VHC911’s analysis shows Vermont's hospital budgets are out of line with their peers and spending too much on management and administration.

Don Tinney, President of Vermont-NEA, stressed the urgency of the moment: “Simply put, this has to stop. At a time when the state’s public education system is under a microscope, it is long past time to do the same with our broken healthcare system.”

According to VT Healthcare 911, there is adequate money within the Vermont health care system to take care of everyone. "We would be better off if we pushed resources further upstream to prevention, primary care and trauma-informed mental health," said Ventriss.

The new group said it is building a broad and politically diverse coalition to help keep leaders focused on reducing costs. "We know hospitals are a vital part of Vermont’s healthcare and our communities, but they need to be run efficiently,” said former Chittenden County Senator Chris Pearson, the group’s chair. "Since 2021, our hospital costs have grown from 35% to 44.5% of healthcare spending in Vermont, now reaching $3.8 billion,” said Pearson. “If Vermont’s hospitals were run more like regional peers, we would see hundreds of millions of dollars in savings each year.”

The group hopes to have discussions with lawmakers, community leaders, business leaders and the public in the months ahead. They say it is the right time to tackle the problem and that they support the work of Green Mountain Care Board, Vermont’s healthcare regulator. "For the first time since it was created in 2011, the GMCB is questioning why hospital costs seem out of scale with similar institutions around New England and the country. It's high time we address these costs directly," said Governor Douglas.

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