Gov. Peter Shumlin Tuesday afternoon released hundreds of pages of documents that he says will help Vermonters understand why he decided to abandon his plan to institute a single-payer health care system in Vermont.
The materials include a 61-page report detailing the pitfalls of public financing. The administration has also released documents related to gubernatorial briefings, and confidential meetings with business and citizen groups.
Tuesday had previously been the date on which Shumlin was going to unveil his single-payer financing proposal. But in a surprise announcement last week, the Democratic governor said moving to a publicly financed health care system would require a payroll tax of 11.5 percent and an income tax of up to 9.5 percent. Those rates, Shumlin said, would have inflicted a severe toll on the Vermont economy, and imposed undue hardships on businesses and individuals.
The documents being released Tuesday will show economic modeling used in the development of the ill-fated financing proposal. Shumlin says the documents will show that the administration considered a number of different benefits packages and financing concepts before concluding that none would work.
Administration officials will hold a briefing on the documents and modeling process with the media on Wednesday morning.
