Dr. Louis Meyers (left) will run for the Senate district in which Sen. Ginny Lyons now holds a seat
by Louis Meyers
I am running for the state senate in the Chittenden Southeast district because I am deeply concerned about our health care system in Vermont. We have taken some wrong turns in recent years, and we seem to now be heading for more of the same.
One of my opponents is Senator Ginny Lyons. Ms. Lyons chairs the Senate Health Committee and is spearheading two major pieces of legislation:
1) She would like to deauthorize the independent Green Mountain Care Board and transfer its regulatory powers to the Agency of Human Services. This would lead to politicization of our health and increased health care costs and further increases in health insurance premiums. Vermonters cannot keep getting hammered with these increases.
2) Ms. Lyons wants Vermont to sign on to a nine-year commitment to a federal reform program called Ahead. Unfortunately, this is almost identical to the failed OneCare program, which has cost Vermont taxpayers hundreds of millions of wasted dollars.
I have been a physician for thirty years and I know that we can create a less expensive and more effective way forward – one that is by and for Vermonters, and does not envelop us in a massive federal program of unproven value. I look forward to an open debate on these issues in the coming months.
The author is a Chittenden County resident and hospital physician and 2022 Democratic primary candidate for Congress.