VT legislature eyes OneCare
Vermont legislators have begun scrutinising OneCare after Medicaid figures showed the program cost $26 million more than it saved, and attention is also turning toward accountability measures for education funding under Act 73. The update was highlighted in CampaignForVT’s weekly briefing tracking state policy. (x.com)
Vermont lawmakers are reopening the books on OneCare after auditors told them Medicaid spent $26 million more than the model saved. (legislature.vermont.gov) At an April 8 House Health Care hearing, Deputy State Auditor Tim Ashe and Audit Manager Jonathan Kingston said the Department of Vermont Health Access was the only insurer paying OneCare’s operating costs during the 2017 to 2019 period they reviewed. (legislature.vermont.gov) The same audit found the Green Mountain Care Board had not developed a method to tell whether OneCare’s operating costs would be greater or less than the benefits of the all-payer accountable care organization model. (legislature.vermont.gov) That review lands after OneCare already announced in November 2024 that it would shut down by the end of 2025, ending the organization at the center of Vermont’s payment-reform experiment. (vtdigger.org) Vermont’s broader all-payer model also sunset at the end of 2025 after an eight-year run that was supposed to slow spending growth and shift care away from fee-for-service billing. (vtdigger.org) The same auditor presentation also revisited the Blueprint for Health, a separate state program, and said a February 2025 audit found it was not evaluating its own impact and was misleading about cost savings. (legislature.vermont.gov) Lawmakers are weighing those health care findings while they also work through Act 73, the 2025 law that starts a multiyear overhaul of Vermont school governance and education finance. (education.vermont.gov) Act 73 requires the state to move toward larger school districts, a weighted student funding formula and a statewide education property tax rate, with the new districts scheduled to begin operating in the 2028 to 2029 school year after lawmakers approve boundaries in 2026. (education.vermont.gov) The law also sets a fixed base amount of $15,033 per pupil in the new formula, adjusted by student weights, and says the General Assembly will set the statewide tax rate each year once the new system takes effect on July 1, 2028. (legislature.vermont.gov) Act 73 also created a School District Redistricting Task Force, ordered reports on special education and other cost drivers, and put the Agency of Education on a three-year timeline to build the new system. (legislature.vermont.gov) The through line in both debates is oversight: auditors told lawmakers to count implementation costs when judging health reforms, and Act 73 now asks the same Legislature to measure whether a statewide school-funding rewrite delivers what it promises. (legislature.vermont.gov; legislature.vermont.gov)
