2006 Legislative Updates:

  February 27, 2006

Crossover: March 3 is the deadline for crossover of bills from one legislative body to another.

Catamount Fund: Last week, the House Ways and Means Committee voted 7-4 on party lines to create the Catamount Fund. This would become the financing mechanism for the health care reform initiatives in the House Health Care Committee bill H.861. Revenues to the fund would come from two sources: an increase in the cigarette tax by $.60 a pack and strategic payments under the Master Tobacco Settlement Agreement:

Total new revenue Less funds transferred to Medicaid FY07, FY08 Funds available for Catamount Health Less Funds carried forward to FY11 Revenue for FY07-FY10

$89.4m $20.0m $69.4m $3.2m $66.2m

H.861 -- Health Care Affordability for Vermonters: The House Appropriations Committee will review H.861 on Monday and Tuesday. The House leadership will start House debate on the bill by midweek. Final vote is scheduled for the end of the week before the legislature leaves for Town Meeting Week.

House Health Care Committee: This week Chair John Tracy (D - Burlington) and members of the committee will prepare for the House debate on H.861. The committee will also discuss a possible third bill to articulate a vision for comprehensive reform and a road map for getting there. If a new bill needs to meet the March 3rd crossover deadline, many in the Statehouse believe the committee will have a very difficult time crafting a meaningful bill in less than a week.

Governor Douglas: At his weekly press conference, Gov. Douglas was asked about his plans to achieve health care reform this legislative session. The governor stated his continued wish to create effective reform by working with the legislature. However, he does not believe the House bill would accomplish reform in a cost-effective way.

Douglas questioned the sustainability of using tobacco revenues to fund the House bill. He repeated his plan to use the same tobacco dollars to fund his scholarship program. The governor expressed his concern that funding for the House plan would ultimately become the responsibility of the taxpayer.

When questioned about his own plan to shift Medicaid/VHAP eligible into employer-based plans, Douglas responded that employers were not being asked to offer anything new to their employees. The legislature has calculated that the governor's proposal would create a $45 million cost shift to employers.

Common Sense Initiatives: Last week, the House Health Care Committee began its review of S.310 -- the Common Sense Initiatives in Health Care (CSI).

The Senate Appropriations Committee began looking at the appropriations in the CSI. The bill would combine various grants under a common strategic planning structure. This is similar to the approach in H.861 -- to unify the Blueprint initiatives with Medicaid and health reform. The administration has several objections since S.310 would rearrange the priorities in the Governor's proposed budget.

Senate Appropriations plans to vote the bill out on Tuesday.

Health Care Reform in Massachusetts:

By Scott Helman and Frank Phillips, Globe Staff - February 26, 2006

Hope for sweeping health care reform to extend coverage to all or most of the state's uninsured is all but dead, according to Senate President Robert E. Travaglini.

Travaglini will instead propose a stripped-down plan tomorrow designed to salvage millions in federal funding that Massachusetts is likely to lose if it does not pass some sort of health care plan by this week.

Legislators, health care advocates, and Governor Mitt Romney have been aiming to pass a landmark plan that would extend health insurance for the first time to all or nearly all Massachusetts residents. But those negotiations have collapsed, and Travaglini's shift is the most explicit acknowledgment of the breakdown.

Vermont Health Care for All would like to thank VPIRG for their generous support of the 2006 Legislative Updates. They are also available on the VPIRG website http://www.vpirg.org. They will be produced throughout the 2006 Legislative session by Paul Forlenza. Forlenza can be contacted at paul@forlenza.us or 802-453-3592.