I love Vermont, our spunky, independent little neighbor to the north. Vermont is often a spark plug that can get the rest of our region moving on an idea. Marriage equality is a case in point. In 2000, the Vermont legislature made the bold decision to pass same-sex civil union and then our Commonwealth, inspired or perhaps not to be outdone, in 2004 took the transformational plunge to full marriage equality that is bringing a cultural shift to our country as a whole.
Gubernatorial candidate Don Berwick highlights this theme in his stump speech when he says that Massachusetts has been and should continue to be a beacon to the rest of the nation in many areas, especially leading the way forward to Single-Payer health care as we have led on “the right to marry the person you love.” But as with marriage equality, Don is keenly aware of what Vermont is up to in healthcare reform and is paying close attention to “Green Mountain Care” enacted by the Vermont legislature in 2011. As I understand it, this act established a framework to develop a Single Payer System for Vermont with the intention that it will be fleshed out and functional by 2017. This was mentioned in the two articles about Berwick’s single payer healthcare vision for the Commonwealth referenced in a post here yesterday (see “Two Great Articles Today on Berwick’s Plan for Single Payer”) including one appearing in the Washington Post. Clearly folks elsewhere are starting to notice that something is happening in healthcare in New England and that Berwick’s vision of single payer for the Commonwealth as “Medicare For All,” is a centerpiece of his campaign.
It is easy to make the mistake that Berwick is a one-issue candidate. While to be sure, as the founder of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and former head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, he probably knows more about health care policy than anyone else on the planet, but the notion of him as a one-issue candidate could not be farther from the truth. This is quite clear from both his website and from hearing him speak at forums. He does however understand to his core, as Ralph Waldo Emerson once so aptly observed, “Health is the First Wealth.” And from getting health care right flows wealth of every other kind. Berwick knows that a well designed and well managed Single Payer Health care system could increase our common wealth in so many ways: how we are able to take care of ourselves, take care of one another, care for our states resources, infrastructure — and do what the fiscally strapped Patrick administration has been unable to do in budget cycle after budget cycle. In short, create a Commonwealth that is truly “For All” its citizens. It is the key and this is why I believe we need a chief executive at the helm who really gets this as Don does — and one whose vision, knowledge and skill can make it happen. I believe Don is this leader and that is what attracted me to his candidacy last summer when I first heard him speak and why I will be voting for him at the convention in June.
As someone who spent most of the past 4 years living in Vermont, while attending Middlebury College, I couldn’t agree more!
It was the Vermont Supreme Court, in Baker v. State (1999) that forced the legislature’s hand. Civil unions actually were the tepid option available to the legislature at that time, and a couple of justices on the state Supreme Court rejected the idea that such second-class arrangements were allowable under the Vermont Constitution.
To the Vermont legislature’s credit, after seeing the success of the civil unions and our marriages in Massachusetts, it became in 2009 the first legislature to pass a law for full marriage equality without being obligated to do so by a court decision.
Vermont also was the first state (before it even was a state) to abolish slavery in its 1777 constitution. When South Carolina fired upon Fort Sumter, frugal little Vermont immediately voted to appropriate twice the largest annual budget it had passed to date in support of the Union effort, and eventually contributed five times that plus a very high per-capita share of soldiers.
To be fair, Mass Equality/GLAD lead attorney Mary Bonauto hailed the Vermont Civil Union provision – expedient compromise that it may have been at the time – as “breathtaking”. No one could have foreseen at that time that four short years later, our own SJC would be making such history with the Goodrich decision, or that a third of the states would have granted full marriage equality in the decade subsequent – who knew?
I’m just saying Mary Bonauto and GLAD had already won in court before it happened. It likely would not have happened in 2000 without that court victory, but once the decision came down the legislature had no choice at all, except between civil unions and actual marriage.
Last evening AG candidate Maura Healy met with my city committee and spoke vociferously against casinos as she did recently in this blog breaking with her opponent’s position. I applaud her for this and will be giving her my vote in June! I am reminded however that Don was the first candidate for state-wide office who took this courageous stand – giving us yet another example of the kind of bold moral leadership that he would provide as Governor.
How exactly is he going to get his ambitious, and yes admirable, plans turned into concrete reality in the state house?
Clifford Marks said it best I think in his Harvard Crimson editorial from about a month ago. Don has done things in healthcare that no one thought was possible. His organization, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, has been leading amazing campaigns to save 1000s of lives in hospitals over the past 20 years. I think that he has leadership skills and creativity to accomplish great things on Beacon Hill, but he’ll need our help too of course! First, we have to elect him as Governor. Then, we have to use grassroots mobilization to tell elected officials in the Legislature that if they don’t want to work with Don, they can say good-bye to another term.
All this is well and good—and Berwick is no doubt the most committed progressive running for the Democratic nomination: He is the only one, for instance, to endorse a Medicare-for-all health care system in Massachusetts. Were it just his philosophy, though, I wouldn’t be writing this. But Berwick also possesses a gift far rarer: the ability to lead and change large organizations.
He has shown this amply in health care, where as founder and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, he crusaded to introduce quality improvement methods from high performing industries such as manufacturing—efforts credited with saving thousands of lives. Indeed, his tireless work helped bring an entire medical culture to the understanding that health care needed to do better by its patients.
Are you affiliated with the Berwick campaign? If so that should probably be disclosed. Also, the grassroots mobilization of which you speak is something I thought we would get with Patrick and Obama and that has fallen flat.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought the BMG policy is that you don’t need to disclose if you’re just a volunteer. I do have the fact that I am listed as a volunteer on my profile page though.
I just thought the way you phrased that made it sound like you were more than that.
No worries!
If you think that Don Berwick’s progressive agenda is pie-in-the-sky, then you don’t know Don Berwick. His widely quoted admonition “Some is not a number, soon is not a time, hope is not a plan” is a mantra for those doing the nitty-gritty work of data-driven improvement across the globe. A quick Google search will reveal that Berwick is widely cited as an exemplar of effective leadership for innovation with quantifiable, breakthrough results worldwide.
This article from McKinsey Quarterly cites Berwick’s groundbreaking leadership as a model for large organizations in the private and public sectors. This article in BusinessWeek praises Berwick’s results & data-driven leadership and says “Berwick’s role in developing, testing, and spreading innovations is unparalleled.” There is much, much more, but the bottom line is that nobody on earth is more capable and qualified to bring this much-needed change to fruition. Don Berwick has a successful 30-year track record of turning ideals into plans and achieving what others have called impossible.
Berwick’s unique effectiveness as a leader, coupled with a bold, progressive vision for Massachusetts make him a truly inspiring candidate. I’m obviously biased, but when I look at what he’s accomplished throughout his career and then look at what he’s proposing for Massachusetts, it’s impossible not to be enthusiastic!
Agreed. Thanks for this deeply thoughtful comment. And also for suggesting the articles — I read them. They are terrific. They dig deeply into the tremendous contributions that Don Berwick has made to the improvement of health care around the world, but moreover suggest to me how Don’s vision and expertise could lead us in the very re-invention of government for our state.
All of our candidates for Governor have their strengths, but it has been said that Don is the Elizabeth Warren of this race and I have come to agree. And not just because the Republicans in Washington were afraid of him. During the caucuses and when collecting signatures for him, I have been struck by how many folks knew him, had worked with him and absolutely gushed with praise for him both as a person and as a professional.
After 16 years of Republican Governors, Deval Patrick while an important figure for our state, has been a transitional one. Now we are ready for transformational leadership and Don has shown that he can accomplish it.
The indebtedness danger to the U.S. economy is mostly a healthcare problem We pay too much as it is for not very good healthcare. Every year we pay too much more too. Ultimately it is unsustainable.
So addressing healthcare is pretty important. Not as important as climate change, but right up there.