Resolution Concerning the Health Care Crisis in Vermont

Adopted January 12, 2006 by the Vermont Library Association Board
WHEREAS “eight percent of the Vermont population has no health coverage and an additional 15 percent has insurance so inadequate that a major illness would render them bankrupt”1; and
WHEREAS double-digit inflation of health insurance premiums and the high cost to employers of providing health-care benefits inhibits the ability of Vermont libraries to recruit and retain library workers, thereby threatening the future of libraries; and
WHEREAS many library workers cannot afford the rapidly rising cost of health-care insurance; and
WHEREAS “a 2001 study commissioned by the State of Vermont found that a Vermont universal health care system could provide quality health care coverage to all Vermonters regardless of employment, income, age or health status, while lowering overall health care costs”2; now therefore, be it
RESOLVED that the Vermont Library Association recognizes the importance of health care for all Vermonters; and be it further
RESOLVED that the Vermont Library Association urges the Vermont state legislature and the governor to address this urgent need by creating a system of paying for health care that covers all Vermonters without regard to employment.


1Vermont Health Care for All (no date). Welcome. Retrieved December 1, 2005, from http://www.vthca.org/
2Vermont Health Care for All (no date). Summary of Lewin Group’s ‘Analysis of the Costs and Impact of Universal Health Care Coverage Under a Single Payer Model for the State of Vermont.’ Retrieved December 1, 2005, from http://www.vthca.org/2001lewin.htm