Another way on health?

Gov. Peter Shumlin’s decision last week to suspend his quest for a first-in-the-nation single-payer health care system in Vermont disappointed supporters.

But they’re also curious to learn exactly what funding mechanisms the governor rejected as unworkable.

Both Reps. Rebecca Ellis and Tom Stevens, Democrats from Waterbury, told the Record they’re surprised and disappointed — but are reserving judgment until more is known about the numbers behind the decision.

“The governor was clear that it can’t work right now because they feel it’s too expensive,” Ellis said. “I’m looking forward to reading the work that was done, to see what the administration came up with.”

Shumlin, a Democrat, made the announcement after four years of trying to institute single-payer in Vermont.

“In my judgment, the potential economic disruption and risk would be too great to small businesses, working families and the state’s economy,” he said at a news conference.

Following Shumlin’s decision, Ellis said she wants to see what House members will push on their own. Regardless, she said she could not yet judge the governor’s decision to abandon a single-payer health care system as revenue projections continue to fall.

“I don’t feel I can answer that yet because I haven’t taken a look at all of their work,” Ellis said.

Likewise, Stevens dismissed critics who say Shumlin’s reckoning proves single-payer cannot work in Vermont. “It’s easy for people to say, but unless they’ve done the work, they couldn’t really,” he said.

However, Washington County Sen. Anthony Pollina, a Democrat, said Shumlin failed supporters by presenting only a plan he knew would not work.

“He was not willing to look at it creatively,” he said.

The senator said Shumlin should have presented legislators with a couple of options, including a plan that offered less comprehensive coverage than the state’s employee health care plan. He looks forward to pushing a new single-payer health care plan in the future.

Shumlin said it would take an 11 percent payroll tax to finance single-payer, and that’s too much for businesses to bear. However, “I’m not sure heavy reliance on the payroll tax is a mistake,” given the variance of taxes paid by businesses, Pollina said.

Some businesses pay payroll taxes as high as 25 percent; others pay nothing at all, he said.

Voting for governor

Ellis, Stevens and Pollina all said they will cast their secret ballot in January to re-elect Shumlin as governor. Shumlin narrowly beat Republican Scott Milne in the November election, but neither got 50 percent of the vote, so that requires a final decision by the Legislature.

“I think the way it works in a democracy is the person who gets the most votes wins,” Pollina said. “I think a lot of people are unhappy with Shumlin right now, but I think that’s a way to start undermining the democratic process.”

“I’m going to vote for the person who got the most votes statewide,” Pollina said.