Vermont doctors say health care monopoly driving them out of business

Single-payer advocates promise high-quality low-cost health care for all.

But physicians in Vermont say the state’s move towards a single-payer health care system is driving independent doctors out of business and eliminating patient choice.

“The health systems have caused it to be nearly impossible from a financial standpoint to stay in private practice. That’s not so in the rest of the country,” Dr. Paul Reiss, a Williston family practice physician, told Vermont Watchdog.

“We’ve gotten to a place here in Vermont where we have about 20 percent independents, yet in the rest of the country 50 to 60 percent are independent practice.”

According to Reiss, the dwindling number of independent doctors in Vermont is due in part to underpayment from government health care programs.

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