BRATTLEBORO — Candidate Peter Shumlin speaks out of both sides of his mouth and thus I find it hard to trust what he says.
An excellent example of this in an interview appeared in the Vermont Business Magazine (VBM) October issue. He told VBM that his long-term strategic goal as governor would be “about reviving small businesses, creating jobs, and getting Vermonters back to work, and that's why I'm running.”
All very well and an admirable goal.
However, midway into the interview, he responds to a question about how he would go about reducing the cost of health care without switching to single payer.
“We have three payers [Blue Cross Blue Shield, MVP, and Cigna] left outside of the government,” he said. “We need to be willing to tell insurance companies to take their profits and leave, because we don't need them anymore. They haven't done anything to make Vermonters healthier.”
He suggests the Vermonters who work for these health insurance companies (more than 300 just at Blue Cross Blue Shield) pack up and leave!
How does this square with keeping businesses here in Vermont and getting Vermonters back to work? What this will do will only serve to cause others to lose their jobs, not to mention all the peripheral consequences of such losses.
We all know how he voted on Vermont Yankee (Entergy) and what that will cost - only some 650 jobs! Now he takes aim at the three health insurance companies left doing business in the state. What business area is next and will your job be safe with this person at the helm?
Just as importantly, he should know that there is at least one Vermonter whom two of the insurance carriers he wants to kick out of Vermont have made healthier. That person is none other than my wife, who five years ago was close to perishing, but Blue Cross Blue Shield and MVP have made it possible for her to live a healthy, productive life. The insurance premiums paid to these companies covered the care my wife needed.
Candidate Shumlin is simply wrong to cherry pick which jobs are worthy - we need all jobs for Vermont to be a place we can call home.