Al Gobeille, Green Mountain Care Board chairman and retired BBA Board Chair addressed the need to keep healthcare costs in check. “It’s critical to control the growth of health care expenses in the coming years. If this effort is not successful, Gobeille says it will cost the state billions of dollars.

For the past few years, Vermont’s spending on health care has grown roughly 3.5 percent a year. But new pressures the state’s health care system could make it difficult to sustain this trend in the future.

Gobeille says maintaining the current growth rate is absolutely critical to the state’s economy and the overall affordability of health care in Vermont. “If we could grow at 3.5 [percent] … we would save $10 billion over a 10 year period, versus 6 percent growth, which is what Health Affairs and other professionals in health economics are forecasting,” he says.” – VPR.net