Vermont Tiger

Important Event

Art Woolf will be participating in a forum tonight, at the town hall in Charlotte, where the topic under discussion will be "Our Energy Future."  Time is 7:00 PM.  You should attend, if possible, and hear what Art has to say.  Then go forth spread the word.

More Here

On the Small Screen

by Art Woolf

I'll be one of the panelists on Vermont Public Television's Vermont This Week on Friday.  The subject is the state of the Vermont economy.  The show airs at 7:30 pm and repeats on Sunday at 11:30 am.  You can also watch it online right now!

 

Return to Saskatchewan

A couple of days ago, we published excerpts from a web page designed to reassure cancer patients in Saskatchewan who have been wait-listed for treatment. 

Why Saskatchewan?

Well, because some supporters of the health-care reform process currently underway in Vermont see its goal as making our state, "the Saskatchewan of the United States."

After browsing that web page with its cloying prose – probably the last thing a desperate cancer patient wants to hear – it is hard not to wonder why we would wish that for ourselves.  And now, we see evidence that maybe Saskatchewan isn't so keen on its own health care program.  That being Saskatchewan isn't such a good deal after all.

The Saskatchewan government announced this week that it will be contracting out dental and knee surgery to a private surgical facility ...  The move will not only save time, but money ... knee surgeries will cost $1,500, $179 or 11 per cent less per procedure. Dental surgeries, at $965, will be cheaper by $76 or seven per cent.

So, perhaps Vermont could skip over the stage where cancer patients have to queue up for treatment and go straight to privatization initiatives.  Could the five people who will be meeting in Montpelier over the next few months to redesign health care in Vermont possibly consider the arc of the Canadian experiment?

The best place to start would be with the work of Ms. Sally Pipes,  president and chief executive officer of the Pacific Research Institute, a San Francisco-based think tank, and author of Miracle Cure: How to Solve America's Health-Care Crisis and Why Canada Isn't the Answer.

Ms. Pipes went through her own ordeals in dealing with the Canadian system, which she recounts here.  She comes at the subject through intelligence and experience and we urge every Vermonter who is concerned that our state might, in fact, become "the Saskatchewan of the United States," to register for this event, come and listen to what she has to say, and then go home and spread the warning: Don't let it happen here.

Important Event

The UVM Janus Forum Presents

Fair Trade Coffee:  How Fair is Fair? 

A Debate featuring

Loraine Ronchi, Senior Economist, African Agricultural and Rural Development program at the World Bank

Colleen Haight, Assistant Professor of Economics at San Jose State University and Economics Program Officer at the Institute for Humane Studies, George Mason University

Thursday October 20, 2011   4:00-5:30 p.m.  at the Ira Allen Chapel at UVM

More information here.

Important Event

 

 

The Future of Health Care

in Vermont

 

Featured Speakers

Sally Pipes

Author of Miracle Cure: How to Solve America's Health-Care Crisis and Why Canada Isn't the Answer, The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care: A Citizen's Guide,  & The Truth About Obamacare.  Ms. Pipes op-eds and essays have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, Financial Times of London, and many other periodicals.

Joel Allumbaugh

Director, Center for Health Reform Initiatives
The Maine Heritage Policy Center
CEO, National Worksite Benefit Group

Panel Discussions on Financing & Stakeholders

Panelists: Darren Allen, VT NEA; Wendy Wilton, Rutland City treasurer; Representative Cynthia Browning, Vermont Legislature; Melbourne Boynton, M.D.; Dan McCauliffe, M.D.; Bob Gaydos, Digital Benefit Advisors; William Brownlee, businessman (panel in formation).
 
Moderators: Anson Tebbetts, News Director, WCAX; Stewart Ledbetter, senior reporter, WPTZ

Tuesday, November 8, 2011
8:30 a.m Registration
9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Hilton Burlington Hotel
Battery Street
 Burlington, Vermont

Register by October 20, 2011
$95 per person (includes lunch)
$60 legislator rate

After October 20, 2011
$125 per person

 to register online, click here

to register by mail, click here for address & to download form

Important Event

The Sheraton Economic Series

 

What’s Next?
 
David and Lyric Hale
 
                        Monday August 29,  2011  
      Sheraton Burlington  -  University Amphitheatre

Social (half) hour at 6:30,  Program at 7:00  No admission charge, no reservations

more here

Important Event

A town hall style forum on Vermont's health care law will be held Thursday, July 14 ,from 6 PM to 8 PM, in Essex at the Essex Grange Hall on Route 15. 

More here

Important Event

Our friend Amity Shlaes will be speaking tomorrow (Wednesday) at Plymouth Notch. Do yourself a favor.

Details here.

Important Event

more here

Important Event