Douglas Torn Between Likes And Dislikes Of Health Care Bill

AP File Photo/Toby Talbot

(Host) The future of a health care reform bill now rests in the hands of Governor Jim Douglas. 

A veto is possible because there are a few provisions that Douglas really dislikes. But he's torn, because the bill also would expand some of his signature initiatives.

VPR's Bob Kinzel reports.

(Kinzel) There are two parts of the bill that Douglas likes; an expansion of the Blueprint for Health -that's the program that offers prevention services to patients with chronic illnesses and he supports a provision that imposes an annual cap on hospital budgets.

But he opposes a section that requires pharmaceutical companies to report how many free drug samples they distribute to Vermont doctors.

And he thinks a provision that calls for several studies to determine the best way to achieve universal access to health care in Vermont is a waste of money:

(Douglas) "The Blueprint effort is recognized nationally as a model in fact some of the elements are included in the legislation that passed the Congress this year but the other sections spending 100s of thousands of dollars on a study that probably is unnecessary because we've hand lots of studied and the drug provision are problematic so I don't know yet which will outweigh the other."

(Kinzel) Senate Health and Welfare chairman Doug Racine is urging the governor to consider the overall impact of the bill:

(Racine) "I think if he looks at it as a whole he'll see that there a lot of good things in this bill that address the real crisis in Vermont and the crisis is a lack of access for a lot of Vermonters and escalating costs which are sucking money out of our economy out of our families and out of our businesses."

(Kinzel) Douglas says he's concerned that the reporting requirement for free drug samples will have a chilling effect on the amount of free drugs that Vermont doctors receive every year:

(Douglas) "A lot of people rely on free samples from their physicians to begin a regime of medication and a lot of people can't afford the prescription drugs that are so expensive so I don't think that's good public policy."

(Kinzel) But Racine says there's no reason why the reporting section should reduce the flow of free drug samples to Vermont:

(Racine) "I think the governor's wrong on that and perhaps he doesn't understand the bill... There's no identifying information that goes with that so the idea that there might be a chilling effect on doctors accepting samples and distributing them to their patients really is not correct."

(Kinzel) If the Governor vetoes the bill, lawmakers will come back to the Statehouse for a special veto session on June 9^th.

For VPR News, I'm Bob Kinzel in Montpelier.