§ 9371. Principles for health care reform
The General Assembly adopts the following principles as a framework for reforming
health care in Vermont:
(1) The State of Vermont must ensure universal access to and coverage for high-quality,
medically necessary health services for all Vermonters. Systemic barriers, such as
cost, must not prevent people from accessing necessary health care. All Vermonters
must receive affordable and appropriate health care at the appropriate time in the
appropriate setting.
(2) Overall health care costs must be contained, and growth in health care spending in
Vermont must balance the health care needs of the population with the ability to pay
for such care.
(3) The health care system must be transparent in design, efficient in operation, and
accountable to the people it serves. The State must ensure public participation in
the design, implementation, evaluation, and accountability mechanisms of the health
care system.
(4) Primary care must be preserved and enhanced so that Vermonters have care available
to them, preferably within their own communities. The health care system must ensure
that Vermonters have access to appropriate mental health care that meets standards
of quality, access, and affordability equivalent to other components of health care
as part of an integrated, holistic system of care. Other aspects of Vermont’s health
care infrastructure, including the educational and research missions of the State’s
academic medical center and other postsecondary educational institutions, the nonprofit
missions of the community hospitals, and the critical access designation of rural
hospitals, must be supported in such a way that all Vermonters, including those in
rural areas, have access to necessary health services and that these health services
are sustainable.
(5) Every Vermonter should be able to choose his or her health care providers.
(6) Vermonters should be aware of the costs of the health services they receive. Costs
should be transparent and easy to understand.
(7) Individuals have a personal responsibility to maintain their own health and to use
health resources wisely, and all individuals should have a financial stake in the
health services they receive.
(8) The health care system must recognize the primacy of the relationship between patients
and their health care practitioners, respecting the professional judgment of health
care practitioners and the informed decisions of patients.
(9) Vermont’s health delivery system must seek continuous improvement of health care quality
and safety and of the health of the population and promote healthy lifestyles. The
system therefore must be evaluated regularly for improvements in access, quality,
and cost containment.
(10) Vermont’s health care system must include mechanisms for containing all system costs
and eliminating unnecessary expenditures, including by reducing administrative costs
and by reducing costs that do not contribute to efficient, high-quality health services
or improve health outcomes. Efforts to reduce overall health care costs should identify
sources of excess cost growth.
(11) The financing of health care in Vermont must be sufficient, fair, predictable, transparent,
sustainable, and shared equitably.
(12) The system must consider the effects of payment reform on individuals and on health
care professionals and suppliers. It must enable health care professionals to provide,
on a solvent basis, effective and efficient health services that are in the public
interest.
(13) Vermont’s health care system must operate as a partnership between consumers, employers,
health care professionals, hospitals, and the State and federal government.
(14) State government must ensure that the health care system satisfies the principles
expressed in this section. (Added 2011, No. 48, § 3, eff. May 26, 2011; amended 2017, No. 200 (Adj. Sess.), § 14; 2019, No. 14, § 53, eff. April 30, 2019.)