Vermont health professionals opting out of state health care system

Watchdog reports:

Vermont health professionals are struggling with the ethics and economics of the state’s health care system — some are going private, and some are leaving the state, in order to provide quality care for patients.

Dr. Mark Healey, surgeon at his private Mountain View Surgery in Colchester, is relocating to New York.

“I am at a tipping point.” Healey told Vermont Watchdog. “Because of the difference in remuneration by insurance companies, I can no longer compete and still give the care I would like.”

Third-party payers like Blue Cross Blue Shield, Medicare, and Medicaid negotiate their payment rates with individual providers. Because public systems continue to grow larger, hospital monopolies can negotiate better pay rates than private practices can attain. The pay equity difference, says Healey, is as large as 240 percent.

The struggle against socialism.