The Governor's Bill Of Goods

According to the author bio that appears at the end of  this Freeps op-ed,

Gov. Jim Douglas lives in Middlebury. 

Maybe.  But this editorial reeks of the place where he works: Montpelier.

In Montpelier, if you see a problem that needs to be fixed, you merely pass a law and declare that the thing has been done.  Montpelier has yet to decree that water shall flow uphill.  But any day now ...

Meanwhile, the water keeps coming down.  On us.

The Governor, writing in full Montpelier idiom, declares:

Green Mountain Care is an all-inclusive family of low-cost and free health coverage programs that provide uninsured Vermonters with access to quality, comprehensive health care coverage at a reasonable cost. These programs give uninsured Vermonters access to the medical care they need, including doctor visits, hospital and emergency care, checkups, prescription medicines, chronic disease care, immunizations, mental health care and more.

One would like to ask the resident of Middlebury, who probably knows a hawk from a handsaw, a question about that one:

Low-cost to whom? 

Not, certainly, to the people who are actually paying for all these benefits.  (And, by the way, what about that "and more?"  What's left?  Massages and facials?) 

But back to that "low-cost" jive.  These programs cost plenty to the people who really pay for them.  The people who already have health insurance and get stuck with stratospherically high premiums for coverage nowhere near so good as Green Mountain Care is offering to people who aren't already covered.  Those high premiums cover the "cost shift" in medical billing.  It is a clever little system and one of the beauties is -- if you are already insured,  you can't just drop your current coverage and join up with the sweet deal the state is offering to the currently uninsured.  See, you are locked in because ... well, the money you pay for that high-deductible, no-frills policy  makes it possible for the folks in Montpelier to preen about the "low-cost"coverage they are offering to "everyone."

That's the way it is done in Montpelier.  And probably why the Governor wants people to know he "lives" in Middlebury.