Douglas, Parker debate issues of health care

MENDON, Vt. --Disagreement about whether consumers should be able to buy health insurance from out of state emerged as a major health care difference between the two major candidates for governor at a debate.

Incumbent Gov. Jim Douglas said he believed out-of-state companies should be permitted to sell in Vermont but Democratic challenger Scudder Parker said it would be a bad idea.

The issue came up in a question from an audience of about 40 who attended a forum sponsored by the Vermont Medical Society and the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems.

"I'd like to find a way," Douglas said when asked about allowing Vermonters to get insurance from outside the state.

Parker said it was a bad idea. "No, you shouldn't be able to go outside the state," Parker said, advocating a universal care system, instead.

Besides the out-of-state insurance, the candidates discussed preventive health care, universal care, medical malpractice and the Catamount Health plan that passed the Legislature this spring.

They also advocated much different approaches to ensuring universal access to health care.

Parker argued that the state needed to craft a health system in which every citizen of the state had access to care. That would help to control the $3.5 billion that's spent on health care in the state, he said, an amount that's increasing by $1 million a day.

"The money to do this is already in the system, we're already spending it," Parker said. "The reality of the current system is it's the middle class that's feeling the burden."

Douglas said the Catamount plan would help pay for coverage for those people without insurance who cannot afford it.

"I think it's a very logical plan," Douglas said. He does not support expanding that program to all residents. "I think it's really important not to get ahead of ourselves. ... We have to make sure it's sustainable."

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Information from: Rutland Herald, http://www.rutlandherald.com/