Health Care Reform Advances
in Two America's Agenda Campaign States:
WV and VT

Campaign Launches in West Virginia

In May, America's Agenda and our West Virginia partners launched a broad-based campaign to enact comprehensive statewide healthcare reform legislation by 2009. The West Virginians' Campaign for a Healthy Future brings together an unprecedented spectrum of labor, business, religious, and healthcare organizations behind a set of specific standards for comprehensive, statewide healthcare reform.

Co-chairs of the joint state legislative committee on healthcare have endorsed the Campaign's standards and begun a process that will proceed over the summer and fall to develop and sponsor legislation designed to make high quality health care affordable for every state resident, regardless of age, income, or health status.

West Virginia Education Association Executive Director David Haney explained to attendees at a recent campaign event: “The Campaign for a Healthy Future will launch a statewide public education effort to assure that West Virginians understand the opportunity this legislative initiative holds for improving their futures.

“Our public education campaign will include communications on TV, radio, and in local newspapers. We're on the internet. And we'll be listening to West Virginians through opinion polls and town hall meetings throughout the state. We'll be faithfully reporting the concerns and expectations we're hearing from the people of West Virginia to the leaders we've elected to represent us.”

Vermont Legislative Victories Strengthen Health Care for All

In May 2006, The Vermont Campaign for Healthcare Security, a universal coverage campaign built by America's Agenda and our in-state partners, won enactment of “Catamount Health,” the most far-reaching healthcare reform legislation enacted, to date, by any state in America. Catamount assures affordable access to high quality healthcare for every uninsured resident in the state.

In May 2008, The Vermont Campaign took bold steps forward toward its goal of guaranteeing “Catamount for All” by winning enactment of three important expansions to Catamount Health:

Expansion #1: All pre-existing conditions exclusions have been eliminated for a six-month trial period. “It's a model for the future of healthcare in Vermont and all of America,” says Campaign Executive Director Peter Sterling. “If the trial is successful, we expect our legislators will make it permanent.”

Expansion #2: An amendment to Catamount health allows all Vermonters with high-deductible insurance plans (deductibles of $10,000 or more) to immediately convert their coverage to the low-deductible Catamount plan, which offers a sliding scale of premium subsidies based on income.

Expansion #3: The waiting period for enrollment in Catamount by those who voluntarily drop current insurance plans with deductibles of less than $10,000 has been reduced from 12 months to 6 months. (This state law change is pending federal approval.)

Catamount Health already eliminates all deductibles and co-pays for patients receiving treatment for chronic diseases. “We're tearing down all the economic barriers preventing Vermonters from getting the healthcare they need,” Sterling points out. “We believe this should be a guiding principle for the healthcare reform America needs.”