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PORTLAND, Maine

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation releases a policy brief on Vermont Health Reform study prepared by the UNE Center for Community and Public Health

A study on Vermont Health Reform authored by Ronald Deprez, Ph.D., M.P.H., director of the University of New England's Center for Community and Public Health, and colleagues has been released as a national policy brief by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. 

The policy brief issued by the RWJF presents key findings from the Center's two-year comprehensive evaluation examining the impact of Vermont’s 2006 health reforms: "Achieving Universal Coverage through Comprehensive Reform: The Vermont Experience - Evaluation Results."

The CCPH study was funded through SHARE (State Health Access Reform Evaluation), a national program supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to fund, synthesize and disseminate evaluations of state health reform.

The findings of Deprez and his co-authors include:

  • Vermont's reform programs have led to increases in coverage; premium subsidies have encouraged take-up among lower-income groups in the state; and
  • Outreach efforts have been critical in promoting take-up among those who were already eligible for public coverage but not enrolled. 

The authors also observe that enrollment growth in the state's Catamount Health program has been hampered by churning, and they warn that the state's Catamount Fund is unsustainable as currently financed.

UNE's Center for Health Policy, Planning and Research in 2008 received the two-year $397,517 SHARE grand to conduct the study.

The purpose of the grant was to allow Deprez and his colleagues to evaluate the effectiveness of Vermont's effort to provide affordable coverage for uninsured residents and also reduce healthcare costs through system changes.

Vermont's healthcare reform was comprehensive, integrated and includes components common to many state health reform efforts, in place or planned. Information gained from the study will be invaluable to the health reform strategies initiated by other states and on the national level.

Recently Vermont unfolded plans to adopt a single payer health insurance program for the state. If adopted it will be the first state in the US to move to a full public option.