Below is a list of bills introduced pertaining to VPA’s interests and the committees where they have been assigned, with a brief description of each and HTML link.
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| Bill | Description | Committee | Supported by VPA |
| H.11 | An Act Relating to the Discharge of Pharmaceutical Waste to State Waters http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/Bills/Intro/H-011.pdf This bill proposes to clarify that the discharge of pharmaceutical waste to state waters is prohibited unless such a discharge is permitted by the agency of natural resources. The bill would also require the secretary of natural resources, after consultation with the secretary of human services, to report to the general assembly with a recommended state program for the take-back, collection, and disposal of unused or discarded pharmaceuticals. | House Fish, Wildlife & Water Resources |  |
| H.28 | An Act Relating to Creating New Governance for Bluecross Blueshield of Vermont http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/Bills/Intro/H-028.pdf This bill proposes to amend the governance structure of BlueCross BlueShield of Vermont to make the decision-making more publicly accountable. | House Health Care | |
| H.37 | An Act Relating to Telemedicine http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/Bills/Intro/H-037.pdf This bill proposes to require all health plans, including Medicaid, to cover telemedicine services. | House Health Care | |
| H.41 | An Act Relating to Requiring Employment Breaks http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/Intro/H-041.pdf This bill proposes to require that employers provide employees with work breaks for meals and rest. | House General, Housing & Military Affairs | |
| H.42 | An Act Relating to Employment Decisions Based on Credit Information http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/Intro/H-042.pdf This bill proposes to generally prohibit employers from making employment decisions based on an applicant’s credit report. | House General, Housing & Military Affairs | |
| H.48 | An Act Relating to Allowing Merchants to Include the Sales Tax in the Price http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/Intro/H-048.pdf This bill proposes to allow merchants to sell items with the sales tax included in the price. | House Ways & Means | |
| H.75 | An Act Relating to the Future of the Commission on Health Care Reform http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/Intro/H-075.pdf This bill proposes to retire the commission on health care reform effective July 1, 2011 and to allow the standing committees of jurisdiction to meet as needed during the legislative interim to implement health care reform initiatives. | House Health Care | |
| H.78 | An Act Relating to Wages for Laid-off Employees http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/Intro/H-078.pdf This bill proposes to require that an employer that ceases business operations pay all wages and benefits owed to its employees within one week of the closing or layoff. | House General, Housing & Military Affairs | |
| H.80 | An Act Relating to a Single-payer Health Care System http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/Intro/H-080.pdf This bill proposes to create a single-payer health care system in Vermont to promote health, prevent chronic conditions, and contain costs. | House Health Care | |
| H.132 | An Act Relating to the Creation of the Vermont Health Care False Claims Act http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/Intro/H-132.pdf This bill proposes to increase state revenues and protect state funds from fraud by creating a false claims act that meets certain federal criteria and in doing so allows the state to retain an additional ten percentage points of the federal share of Medicaid funds recovered from fraud. | House Human Services | |
| H.138 | An Act Relating to Executive Branch Fees http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/Intro/H-138.pdf This bill proposes to adjust executive branch fees. § 5 & 6 | ||
| H.145 | An Act Relating to the Use of Disposable Carryout Bags http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/Intro/H-145.pdf This bill proposes to establish a fee of $0.05 for each disposable carryout bag used by a person for the purpose of carrying goods, food, or other products from a retail establishment | ||
| H.146 | An Act Relating to a Public Health Care Coverage Option http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/Intro/H-146.pdf This bill proposes to provide comprehensive, affordable, high-quality health care coverage for all Vermont residents and to contain health care costs. It would establish a public health care coverage option called Green Mountain Care with sliding-scale premiums and cost-sharing that would be available to all Vermont residents and would be funded, in part, with a payroll tax. The bill would also focus on hospital cost containment by implementing a statewide global hospital budget and negotiated hospital payments for individual hospitals while providing hospital services to all Vermont residents. The bill would require all Vermont residents to have health care coverage at least equivalent to the actuarial value of Green Mountain Care and would assess a financial penalty against those who fail to maintain such coverage. It would require the department of banking, insurance, securities, and health care administration to recommend a process by which Green Mountain Care may obtain an insurance license and offer the public option through Vermont’S health benefit exchange. To help fund Green Mountain Care, the bill would institute a candy and 1 soft drink tax as well as a 10-percent payroll tax on all employers with more than four employees. The bill would eliminate private insurance exclusions on coverage of preexisting conditions and would allow individuals to purchase insurance in the nongroup market regardless of whether they are eligible for an employer-sponsored plan. Finally, the bill would appropriate $500,000.00 to the state’s health care provider and educator loan repayment program and would direct the department of Vermont health access to analyze the impact on Vermonters of federal premium tax credits and cost-sharing subsidies. | ||
| H.151 | An Act Relating to the Imposition of an Excise Tax on Sugar-sweetened Beverages http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/Intro/H-151.pdf This bill proposes to impose an excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverages. | House Ways & Means | |
| H.171 | An Act Relating to a Prescription Drug and Medical Supply Repository Program http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/Intro/H-171.pdf This bill proposes to create a drug repository program through which licensed facilities, wholesale drug distributors, and drug manufacturers can donate unused, unopened prescription drugs and medical supplies to pharmacies, hospitals, and clinics in order to dispense such drugs and supplies, for only a handling fee, to persons who are income-eligible or uninsured or both. | House Human Services | |
| H.202 | An Act Relating to a Single-Payer and Unified Health System http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/Intro/H-202.pdf This bill proposes to set forth a strategic plan for creating a single-payer and unified health system. It would establish a board to ensure cost-containment in health care, to create system-wide budgets, and to pursue payment reform; establish a health benefit exchange for Vermont as required under federal health care reform laws; create a public–private single-payer health care system to provide coverage for all Vermonters after receipt of federal waivers; create a consumer and health care professional advisory board; examine reforms to Vermont’s medical malpractice system; modify the insurance rate review process; and create a statewide drug formulary. | House Health Care | |
| H.222 | An Act Relating to Arbitration of Medical Malpractice Claims http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/Intro/H-222.pdf This bill proposes to establish a system of mandatory arbitration for medical malpractice claims. | House Judiciary | |
| H.231 | An Act Relating to a Study of the Workers’ Compensation Program, Health Care Coverage, and a Single-payer Health Care System http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/Intro/H-231.pdf This bill proposes to create a committee to study Vermont’s workers’ compensation program, health coverage, and a single-payer health care system. | House Health Care | |
| H.233 | An Act Relating to Global Hospital Budgets and Health Care Reform http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/Intro/H-233.pdf This bill would provide access to and coverage for health services provided in hospitals. It would establish a global hospital budget for the state and an individual hospital budget for each hospital in the state and create a Vermont hospital security trust fund from which a negotiated payment would be made to each hospital for health services provided. The bill would create hospital service areas around the state and require the creation of federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and FQHC look-alike facilities in each region to complement the services of the local hospital. It would extend the duration of the commission on health care reform through July 1, 2016 and direct the commission to monitor the creation of FQHCs and FQHC look-alikes statewide. The bill would require health insurers to disclose to the department of banking, insurance, securities, and health care administration the rates they negotiate with providers and would direct the department to post the information on its website. It would also make medical malpractice claims subject to arbitration, establish a loan repayment program for primary care providers and for health professionals practicing 1 exclusively in Vermont hospitals, and direct the secretary of human services to seek waivers and exemptions from federal law as necessary to implement the Vermont hospital security plan. | House Health Care | |
| H.243 | An Act Relating to Tax Reform Recommendations of the Vermont Blue Ribbon Tax Structure Commission http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/Intro/H-243.pdf This bill proposes to begin the tax reform process recommended by the Vermont Blue Ribbon Tax Structure Commission for creating transparency in Vermont’s tax system by providing for a high level of ongoing scrutiny of the multiple exemptions embedded in Vermont’s major tax structures. This process would be implemented by an initial, prospective sunset of nearly all tax incentives in the personal income tax, sales tax, meals and rooms tax, and property tax. It is not the intent of the commission to actually repeal all of the tax incentives set out in this bill, but by these prospective repeals, to ensure that the legislature does scrutinize each of these incentives and make an active decision as to whether to continue each incentive. This bill also proposes to implement the commission’s recommendation to extend the sales tax to services provided at the retail level. | House Ways & Means | |
| H.266 | An Act Relating to a Screening Panel for Medical Injury Claims http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/Intro/H-266.pdf This bill would establish screening panels for medical injury claims. | House Judiciary | |
| H.274 | An Act Relating to Patient Choice and Control at End of Life http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/Intro/H-274.pdf This bill proposes to allow, 1 subject to appropriate safeguards, a mentally competent person diagnosed as having less than six months to live to request a prescription which, if taken, would hasten the dying process. | House Human Services | |
| H.281 | An Act Relating to Pharmacy Security http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/Intro/H-281.pdf This bill proposes to require that pharmacies be equipped with security cameras and alarms that are wired to immediately notify law enforcement if activated. | House Government Operations | |
| H.301 | An Act Relating to Required Wage Payments http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/Intro/H-301.pdf This bill proposes to require that an employee be paid a minimum of two hours’ pay if he or she reports to work at the employer’s request. | House General, Housing & Military Affairs | |
| H.356 | An Act Relating to Absence from Work for Health Care and Safety http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/Intro/H-356.pdf This bill proposes to ensure that all workers in Vermont are able to take care of their own health and safety needs and those of their families by allowing employees to accrue a minimum number of paid hours annually so that workers can take paid time from work to address issues related to health care or safety for themselves or a family member. | House General, Housing & Military Affairs | |
| H.420 | An Act Relating to the Office of Professional Regulation http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/Intro/H-420.pdf This bill proposes to amend the practice acts for various professions. | House Government Operations | |
| H.436 | An Act Relating to Tax Changes, Including Income Taxes, Property Taxes, Economic Development Credits, Health Care-related Tax Provisions, and Miscellaneous Tax Provisions http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/House/H-436.pdf This bill proposes to implement tax changes, including changes to income taxes, property taxes, economic development credits, health care-related provisions, and miscellaneous tax provisions. | Senate Finance | |
| H.438 | An Act Relating to the Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities, and Health Care Administration http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/Intro/H-438.pdf This bill proposes to make various amendments to the Vermont statutes pertaining to matters within the jurisdiction of the department of banking, insurance, securities, and health care administration. | House Ways & Means | |
| H.441 | An Act Relating to Making Appropriations for the Support of Government http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/Intro/H-441.pdf This bill proposes to make appropriations in support of government for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2011. | Passed House | |
| PR1 | Right to Health Care http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/intro/PR0001.pdf This proposal would amend the Constitution of the State of Vermont to provide a right to health care. The general assembly shall determine the scope of the right to health care. | Senate Health & Welfare | |
| S.5 | Prescription Drug Co-Payments http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/Bills/Intro/S-005.pdf This bill proposes to limit the amount of the co-payment health insurers may require from their subscribers for prescription drugs. | Senate Finance | |
| S.13 | An Act Relating to Prescription Drug Labels http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/Bills/Intro/S-013.pdf This bill proposes to require the label on generic drugs to indicate both the generic and brand names for the medication. | Senate Health & Welfare | |
| S.17 | An Act Relating to Medical Marijuana Dispensaries http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/Bills/Intro/S-017.pdf This bill proposes to permit the establishment of two nonprofit medical marijuana dispensaries in the state for the purpose of providing medical marijuana for symptom relief to registered patients who have a debilitating medical condition. The dispensaries will be licensed and regulated by the department of public safety. | Senate Health & Welfare |  |
| S.43 | An Act Relating to Nonpayment of Wages http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/Intro/S-043.pdf This bill proposes to increase the penalties upon employers for nonpayment of wages. | ||
| S.52 | An Act to Protect Employees from Abuse at Work http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/Intro/S-052.pdf This bill proposes to protect employees from bullying or being a victim of abusive treatment in the workplace. | Senate Economic Development, Housing & General Affairs | |
| S.57 | An Act Relating to a Single-Payer and Unified Health System http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/Intro/S-057.pdf This bill proposes to set forth a strategic plan for creating a single-payer and unified health system. It would establish a board to ensure cost-containment in health care, to create system-wide budgets, and to pursue payment reform; establish a health benefit exchange for Vermont as required under federal health care reform laws; create a public–private single-payer health care system to provide coverage for all Vermonters after receipt of federal waivers; create a consumer and health care professional advisory board; examine reforms to Vermont’s medical malpractice system; modify the insurance rate review process; and create a statewide drug formulary. | Senate Health & Welfare | |
| S.96 | An Act Relating to Technical Corrections to the Workers’ Compensation Statutes http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/Senate/S-096.pdf This bill proposes to make technical corrections to the workers’ compensation statutes. | House Commerce & Economic Development |