After two years of preparing to tackle health care reform, the Shumlin administration is losing its most important player, Anya Rader Wallack, the chair of Green Mountain Care Board. Her departure will change the effort, but won't derail it.

VPR news analyst, Hamilton Davis, talks with Vermont Edition about what Governor Peter Shumlin has done so far to help control the cost of health care.

Gov. Peter Shumlin has not getting solid legislation in place, yet, to implement his health care plan, the centerpiece of his political agenda.

The House Health Care committee has voted to kill legislation that provides subsidies to help low and moderate income Vermonters purchase health insurance.

Critics of Governor Peter Shumlin's plans for a single payer health system charge his administration studied how to pay for it, but then halted the work. The group Vermonters for Health Care Freedom alleges the administration looked at a financing plan based on new taxes but then stopped because of political concerns.

The Green Mountain Care Board has set forth a tentative target inflation rate of 4 percent for Vermont's 14 hospitals for the coming fiscal year, a target that would add about $85 million to the current statewide spending level of $2.136 billion. The final system increase will depend on the board's decisions on the individual hospitals' requests.

A number of Vermont business leaders say the Shumlin Administration is trying to punish thousands of small businesses when a new health care Exchange goes into place next January.

This week, volunteers marked Martin Luther King Day by doing community service, the state said detecting future leaks at Vermont Yankee may be compromised, committees looked into high gasoline prices, Legislators were introduced to the Health care Exchange software and Vermonters hit the ice for some pond hockey.

Officials from Burlington's Fletcher Allen Health Care, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and other hospitals serving Vermont have joined to create the nation's first statewide accountable care organization. Friday's announcement means about 42,000 of Vermont's 118,000 Medicare beneficiaries will get their care from the new entity.

Vermont has won conditional federal approval for its plan to build a consumer-friendly health insurance marketplace, or exchange.

The Shumlin administration is encouraging state employees with children to consider dropping the kids from their health care plan, and enrolling them in Dr. Dynosaur. The administration says the change could save state employees a lot of money.

Vermont's governor and congressional delegation will be among those on hand Tuesday for the grand opening of a new health co-op, in South Burlington.

Newscast: Monday, October 22, 2012, 5:50 p.m.

Thousands of middle income Vermonters could see their health care costs spike when a new federal exchange goes into place in 2014. A group of advocates is urging the Legislature to create a special state subsidy program to make up the difference.

A provision in Vermont's health care law called on the Shumlin Administration to identify several ways to finance a single payer health care system early next year. But the 2013 date was chosen when it seemed that the state might get a federal waiver to implement a single payer plan in the next few years.  Since that possibility now seems remote, officials say it doesn't make any sense to vote on a plan until at least 2015.

The Green Mountain Care Board has voted not to include adult dental services as part of the basic benefit package that will be offered to Vermonters though the Health Care Exchange in 2014.

Physicians from around Vermont will gather at a conference this weekend to discuss how they can help reform the state's health care system. The conference will be held Saturday at UVM.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Randy Brock is calling for major changes to Vermont's regulatory system for health care. Brock wants to dissolve the newly created Green Mountain Care Board because he says its members are unelected officials who aren't accountable to anyone.

The Republican running for Vermont governor says there are 25 things the state can do to reduce costs and raise quality in health care.

Fletcher Allen Health Care of Burlington and the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center of Lebanon, N.H., which have competed for decades to treat Vermont's sickest patients, last week sought federal approval to jointly manage Medicare patients in Vermont.

Newscast: Friday, September 7, 2012, 5:50 p.m.

GOP gubernatorial candidate Randy Brock has unveiled his plan to provide universal access to health care in Vermont. Brock says creating more competition in the private insurance market place is the best way to control health care expenses.

For the first time, the state's Green Mountain Care Board will decide how much hospital budgets should go up each year. The board has established a cap of 3.75 percent. But there are some circumstances that could result in larger increases.

Governor Peter Shumlin says he wants his plan to finance a single payer health care system to significantly reduce the amount of money that businesses pay for health insurance. And the Governor wants to implement his plan a year sooner than he's previously announced.

The state of Vermont is set to receive several hundred million dollars in new Medicaid funds as part of the Affordable Care Act. Vermont's Medicaid program will benefit from the Affordable Care Act because the state's congressional delegation worked to increase Vermont's overall Medicaid funding rate.