An iconic liberal dream quietly died in Vermont recently.
The proposed single-payer health care system for the Green Mountain State ran headlong into reality.
Gov. Peter Shumlin, longtime proponent of the government health care plan, finally realized its phenomenal costs and associated tax increases and reluctantly announced he could no longer support it.
“The potential economic disruption and risks would be too great to small businesses, working families and the state’s economy,” said Shumlin at a press conference. He was referring to the projected doubling of all taxes in Vermont to fund it.
He can’t say they weren’t warned. Conservatives in the Vermont legislature — the few that there are — repeatedly warned of the unaffordability of the proposed gigantic program, laying out in black and white the fiscal impossibility of providing “free” health care to all.
Shumlin and Vermont Democrats had charged ahead, however, led by Shumlin’s special counsel for health care reform, Anya Rader-Wallack, who famously stated, “We can move full speed ahead with what we need without knowing where the money’s coming from.”
Jonathan Gruber, genius and Affordable Care Act creator, helped design “Green Mountain Care” and promised billions in savings over the next decade. What could go wrong?
Thankfully for Vermont taxpayers, much of the potential damage was averted as leaders realized their folly and aborted their mission to liberal health care utopia before too much “economic disruption.” Federal taxpayers, however, had already shelled out $45 million in planning grants.
Maine Democrats who either haven’t heard of the Vermont implosion or don’t care are still not ready to give up on the vision of a single-payer plan for Maine. They have submitted several bills this year proposing as much — just as they have in every Maine Legislature over the past 15 years. Rader-Wallack would approve.
They do this despite the fact that all of their previous single-payer bills failed, even when the Democrats held large legislative majorities and the governor’s office. With Republicans in control of the Senate and the governor’s office, these new single-payer bills don’t have even a dim ray of hope.
Combine that with the news that Vermont, the bluest of blue states, just had a fiscal epiphany and came to the same conclusion that conservatives reached long ago — that single-payer is unaffordable — and even a left-wing visionary should see that these bills are a waste of time.
It takes true dedication to the left’s ideology for these legislators to “move full speed ahead” on these obviously doomed bills, against all odds, despite common sense, despite actuarial and fiscal warnings, failed previous experiments (see Dirigo Health) and a public fed up with the disaster of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
And it takes a lot of money — in this case, taxpayer money.
These dead-on-arrival bills will first have to be drafted — that’s hours of legal analyst time actually writing the text of these proposed laws. That’s not free.
They will then be sent to the Insurance and Financial Services committee where public hearings will be scheduled, advertised and held. Work sessions will come next for the committee to discuss, amend and vote on the bills. Again, not free.
And all of the sponsors of these bills — Reps. Heidi Brooks, Gina Melaragno and Ralph Tucker as well as former Insurance and Financial Services chair Sen. Geoffrey Gratwick of Bangor — actually serve on the Insurance and Financial Services committee, assuring the bills will make it through the committee process and on to the House or Senate floors.
There they will be printed, debated, amended, debated more and, ultimately, after a series of votes, they will fail. Again, all taking legislative time and taxpayer money.
So why do it?
It’s not easy to give up on a dream — or the dreams of your supporters. And there’s no need to if the costs associated with the dream are paid for by others — the taxpayers.
These legislators can fulfill their campaign promises and keep the dream alive regardless of the rationale or cost.
We can expect a great show of support from the usual far left suspects such as the Maine People’s Alliance, Consumers for Affordable Health Care, the MEA, AFL-CIO, and more. They will testify at the public hearings and they demonstrate actively in the State House when the bills reach the House and Senate floors.
But it won’t affect the outcome — these bills are dead on arrival.
Single-payer health care was “studied” ad nauseum, planned for years and finally died in blue Vermont. Its epitaph should read, “If it couldn’t happen here, it can’t happen anywhere.”
Maine Democrats need to understand that thought and let it sink in.
Jonathan McKane is a former four-term Republican state representative from Newcastle.