Current News

Following an unprecedented outreach and education campaign, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont (BCBSVT) implemented a late-year contingency plan in 2013 that protected more than 52,000 Vermonters from interruptions in their health care coverage. The member-focused work reflected a historic commitment by Vermont’s only local health plan to support Vermonters in their transition to the state’s new health care exchange, Vermont Health Connect (VHC).
At year’s end, more than 14,000 Vermonters who receive their health care coverage through small businesses had enrolled in VHC-approved qualified health plans directly through Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont. An additional 38,000 Vermonters had extended their 2013 coverage with BCBSVT under contingency options approved in late October by Governor Peter Shumlin.

After long careers at previous firms, Kevin Ellis and Bryan Mills have formed an eponymously named public affairs firm based in Montpelier and Boston. They intend to offer new approaches under the public affairs umbrella, including public relations, state government affairs, corporate and non-profit strategy, crisis management, land-use projects and media training. It is a new, fast-moving, low-overhead approach that we think clients will appreciate.
The new firm, Ellis Mills, springs from their shared belief in the value and importance of responsive, high-quality strategic counsel for companies and non-profits in a rapidly changing world dominated by technical and political change. Like it or not, clients of all kinds must talk to government and vice versa. When that conversation is clear and constructive, everybody wins.

Attorney General Bill Sorrell has joined 42 other state and territorial attorneys general in sending a letter to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) urging it to require manufacturers of generic prescription pain relievers to develop tamper-resistant versions of their products. Sorrell was also part of a coalition of attorneys generals that requested the FDA reconsider its recent approval of Zohydro ER, a high dose narcotic painkiller.

As a brutal cold front grips much of the country, Representative Peter Welch (D-Vermont) is calling on President Obama to restore funding for LIHEAP, the federal program that helps vulnerable Americans pay their energy bills.’ ‘
In recent years, funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) has been slashed, literally leaving low-income families, children and seniors out in the cold. ‘ Citing a 30 percent decline in funding, Welch is urging Obama to fund the program in his upcoming budget proposal at no less than $4.7 billion. ‘ ‘ ‘
Last winter, Vermont received $18.3 million in federal LIHEAP funding, with the state contributing an additional $9.7 million. In that same period, just under 28,000 Vermont households received LIHEAP assistance. ‘

CVAA’s Executive Director John Barbour has announced his intention to retire this year from the agency. Barbour has been the Executive Director for 26 years and has been with the agency for nearly 34 years advocating for seniors, their families,’ and their caregivers. During his tenure he has dealt with the surge in the senior population, the reduction of funding, and the move toward more community based services. In the ever changing world of senior services, Barbour has been the one constant.

This year, VNRC is urging legislators wrap up two pro-environment measures left over from last year, as well as pass some additional, but relatively targeted, changes to land use and clean energy policy. The following is VNRC’s primary legislative priorities for 2014.

by Morgan True vtdigger.org Vermont’s plans for a single-payer health care system have catapulted it into the national spotlight. With so much attention being paid to health care as the Affordable Care Act moves from rolling-out to up-and-running, Americans (or at least media and policy types) are asking what’s next?
Filmmaker Michael Moore, of ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’³ fame, recently penned an op-ed for the New York Times on the failures and successes of Obamacare, which concluded with the proclamation that Vermont’s single-payer experiment could ‘change everything,’ adding the president ‘knew in his heart that a single-payer, Medicare-for-all model was the true way to go.’
For just about everything you wanted to know about the state’s health care exchange, but were afraid to ask, go to VTDigger’s user’s guide to Vermont Health Connect.
The guide includes an interactive chart that helps you find your estimated subsidy level instantly.

by Anne Galloway vtdigger.org A 13-year-old girl committed suicide in a group home at the Brattleboro Retreat last Friday. The teenager was last seen in a common room on Friday evening 10 minutes to 15 minutes before she was found dead in an upstairs room, according to Retreat officials. Staff at the adolescent residence hall called her for dinner, and realized she was missing when she didn’t respond.
The Brattleboro Police Department and the Vermont Department for Children and Families are both investigating the death.
Peter Albert, a spokesman for the Brattleboro Retreat, said psychiatric hospital staff are ‘gathering the data for the investigation and at some level coming to grips to how tragic this is, and how horrible it is for family ‘ that’s where our energies are at this point.’

Lawmakers returned to the Vermont Statehouse in Montpelier Tuesday and the Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility has issued its stance on big questions regarding health care, clean energy, food security, economic development and the state budget.
VBSR’s 2014 Legislative Agenda
Health Care
We support the full implementation of Vermont Health Connect and will work to ensure that the system is successful for our businesses and their employees. Vermont must also continue to build on federal health care reform efforts and create a health care system that covers all residents, cuts unnecessary waste and spending and decouples insurance from employment. This system must also be funded fairly and based on a person’s ability to pay.
Tax Reform and Fiscal Policy

FairPoint Communications, Inc (Nasdaq: FRP), a leading provider of advanced communications in northern New England, has expanded broadband to more than 40 homes and businesses in Braintree and Rochester.’
FairPoint’s new fiber-based, high-capacity network offers customers a better, faster way to communicate.’
‘Our next-generation network allows us to expand broadband service into areas with no high-speed Internet access and provide enhanced services across the state,’ said Beth Fastiggi, FairPoint state president for Vermont. ‘Broadband availability opens the doors to the world for the residents and businesses in Vermont and is fundamental to the state’s future economic growth.’’

Led by the vital personal income tax, General Fund revenues totaled $118.52 million for December 2013, +$4.10 million or +3.58% ahead of the monthly target. Year to date, General Fund receipts were $623.90 million, +$3.01 million or +0.48% above the cumulative target, and +$22.33 million (+3.71%) ahead of the same period for the prior fiscal year (FY 2013). Secretary of Administration Jeb Spaulding released the December 2013 General Fund (GF) revenue results today. December is the sixth month of fiscal year (FY) 2014.

The median income of married Vermont tax filers rose in 2012 to $70,573, according to The Vermont Economy Newsletter’s analysis of just-released Vermont Tax Department data.’ After adjusting for inflation, median family income was up by 0.8 percent.’ Fifty percent of families earn more than the median and fifty percent earn less.’
‘The increase in median income, although small, was welcome,’ said Art Woolf, co-author of the study and editor of The Vermont Economy Newsletter.’ ‘The sluggish economic growth since the end of the recession has constrained income growth for average Vermonters,’ he continued.’ ‘
‘Real family income fell by $3,300 during the recession,’ said Richard Heaps, the study’s co-author. ‘ ‘We’ve recovered $1,100 of that decline, so we’re one-third of the way back to our pre-recession peak.’’