Read Lauren’s address made at the bill signing:

“I’m thrilled to join today’s celebration as Governor Shumlin signs into law the nation’s strongest bill to protect kids and fire fighters from toxic and unnecessary flame retardant chemicals.  I’d like to thank the Governor and legislators – including, among others, Senators John Campbell, Claire Ayer, Ginny Lyons, Kevin Mullin, Representatives Shap Smith, Willem Jewett, Ann Pugh and Jill Krowinski – for their leadership in enacting this important public health legislation.

I’d also like to thank the broad coalition of partners who came out in support of this legislation, including the Professional Fire Fighters of Vermont, Voices for Vermont’s Children, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, Toxics Action Center, and others.

One key chemical targeted in the bill, chlorinated Tris, was pulled from children’s pajamas back in the 1970s when it was linked to cancer, and since then has also been shown to cause fertility problems, lowered IQ, and other negative health impacts.

Despite the known dangers of Tris exposure, manufacturers soon found new uses for it – in a wide range of children’s products. I found it in my own son’s nursing pillow, car seat, high chair and more. It’s also really common in couches and other furniture in our homes.

It seems incredible that a chemical that was deemed to be too dangerous to be in kids’ pajamas 35 years ago was, until today, OK for use in nursing pillows and other kids’ products. 

To make matters worse, these chemicals don’t even work as advertised to reduce the risk of fires, and they make the job of fighting fires more dangerous.

The law that Governor Shumlin just signed is important because it means that these harmful flame retardant chemicals won’t be used in our kids’ products or furniture in Vermont in the future.

This legislation builds on Vermont’s legacy of enacting laws to protect consumers from toxic chemicals, including recent bans on BPA, mercury, lead and phthalates in consumer products. This year’s ban on flame retardants received unanimous support in the legislature, and clearly shows that protecting the health of our fire fighters and our families is a non-partisan, commonsense issue.

Now it’s time to build on this success. With over 85,000 registered chemicals, we can’t keep tackling them one at a time. Next year, we’ll be calling for the legislature to take a proactive approach to regulating toxic chemicals so we can ensure that products in Vermont are safe before they reach our store shelves.

I thank you all again, and look forward to continuing this excellent work with you next year.”

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Vermont Health Connect is the new online marketplace where small businesses (50 or fewer employees) and individuals in Vermont will buy their health insurance starting in October 2013 for coverage in 2014. Earlier this spring both Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont and MVP filed their proposed rates for 2014. These rates are currently under review by the Green Mountain Care Board, and they need to hear from you. - Click here to see the proposed rates

One of the major factors that is being considered by the Board is the affordability of these rates.This is your chance to make sure the Board approves rates that are affordable for you.You can find out what insurance might fit your budget by looking at the plan summaries below and clicking here to see how much you can expect to pay for your monthly premium.

These plans range from platinum plans that have a $150 deductible and a $2,500 out of pocket maximum to bronze plans that have a $3,700 deductible and a $7,650 out of pocket max. 

There are also some subsidies available to help with these cost for lower and middle income individuals.

(Ded.= Deductible, Max=Out of Pocket Maximum. All assistance reflects the selection of a silver level plan)

For a complete summary of the plan designs click here

This is a great opportunity for consumers to have their voices heard before these rates are set in stone, and you can make a difference. Take a minute to see what these rates will mean to you and make sure to let the Green Mountain Care Board now what you think.

Comment on these proposed rates today!

According to former insurance company spokesman turned whistle blower Wendell Potter, Cigna’s for profit status is likely the reason that their denial rates were higher than all other insurers.

“The longer you can delay paying a claim, the more investment income you can make on the premiums you take in from your policyholders. And investment income is especially important to for-profit insurance companies because it contributes significantly to the bottom line. Shareholders and Wall Street financial analysts like that, even though much of the money on which the investment gains were made should have been paid to health care providers.”-For the full article click here.

The reports also showed much more than just high denial rates on the part of Cigna. After a careful reading of the information provided it was clear that Cigna’s numbers just didn’t add up.

The first area where Cigna failed to provide necessary information was in the area of denied claims. Denied claims are divided in to two categories, denials that have direct “member impact” and those that are “administrative” and don’t have an impact on what consumers have to pay.  Based on Cigna’s filing they denied a total of 42,139 claims in Vermont. Of these denials 30,130 were “administrative” and 6,461 were “member impact” leaving a total of more than 5,500 claims unaccounted for.

Further investigation also showed that Cigna had some glaring discrepancies between the amount of executive compensation they reported to Vermont and the federal government. The information filed with the state listed CEO David Cordani’s annual compensation at $3,970,833, while information reported to the SEC listed his compensation at $12,881,495, a difference of nearly $9 million dollars.  This trend was consistent across all of Cigna’s executives, adding up to tens of millions of unreported compensation. -To learn more about the discrepancies in Cigna’s filing click here.

After these discrepancies were reported to the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation Cigna was required to file an amended report. The new filing corrects the discrepancies in Cigna’s compensation reporting, but it still leaves 5,500 denied claims unaccounted for.

We know that this information like this will be critical as Vermonters get ready to enter the new health insurance exchange, so we will be crunching the numbers to give you an easy guide to health insurance in Vermont later this summer.

In the meantime if you want to see how insurers stacked up you can look at our initial analysis here, or check out the insurers filings for yourself.

BCBS VT

Cigna
-Original filing
-Amended filing

MVP

The Vermont Health Plan

Lawmakers, pressured by fossil fuel interests and Super PAC lobbying, failed to step up and make these investments. However, VPIRG did successfully back improvements to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which could bring in additional dollars to help Vermonters weatherize their homes. And we made some progress to expand electric vehicle adoption in the state.

To free up some financing to help individuals and small businesses invest in efficient heating, VPIRG also pressed legislative leaders to pass H.395, which will put about $11 million on the table for low-interest loans. These steps lay the foundation for more significant action in 2014.

Of course, we didn’t win every fight.  The Legislature failed to commit the necessary resources to weatherize our homes and businesses, for example.  But we’re taking the time to celebrate the wins, reflect on the losses, and get to work building the grassroots support to carry us forward again, next year!

To skip to specific recaps, click here:

• Protecting your Right to Know GMOs

• Banning Toxic Flame Retardants

• Keeping Vermont on the Path to Health Reform

• Holding Health Insurers Accountable

• Baby Steps on Clean Heat 

• Anti-Renewable Energy Provisions Defeated 

• State Voice in Tar Sands Pipeline Affirmed

• Commonsense Campaign Reform

Consumer Protection

H. 112—Protecting your Right to Know GMOs
In a historic vote, the Vermont House passed legislation to protect your right to know whether the food you’re considering purchasing contains genetically engineered ingredients (a.k.a. genetically modified organisms or GMOs). No other state’s GMO-labeling bill has gotten this far – Vermont’s bill to require labels on GMO food sold here is on track to become the nation’s first such law. VPIRG and our partners will now focus on the Senate so that the bill can become law next year. Then Vermonters will then have the same ability to make informed food purchasing choices as citizens who live in any of the more than 60 countries around the world with GMO-labeling laws have today.

Environmental Health

S.81 – Banning Toxic Flame Retardants
Upon learning that a cancer-causing chemical banned from children’s pajamas in the 1970s (chlorinated Tris) had found its way into numerous other children’s products and home furniture, VPIRG and our fire fighter allies successfully pushed for a ban on Tris in these products. The legislature unanimously supported this bill, which puts in place the nation’s strongest ban on these ineffective flame retardants, and is an important step on our path to broader chemical safety reforms.

Clean Energy

H.395/H.520 – Baby Steps on Clean Heat
Heating efficiency programs save energy and money, while reducing global warming pollution. But it takes money to save money, and in order to meet the statewide goal of weatherizing 80,000 (or one in four) Vermont homes by 2020, we need a serious investment of public dollars. Lawmakers, pressured by fossil fuel interests and Super PAC lobbying, failed to step up and make these investments. However, VPIRG did successfully back improvements to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which could bring in additional dollars to help Vermonters weatherize their homes. And we made some progress to expand electric vehicle adoption in the state.

To free up some financing to help individuals and small businesses invest in efficient heating, VPIRG also pressed legislative leaders to pass H.395, which will put about $11 million on the table for low-interest loans. These steps lay the foundation for more significant action in 2014.

S.30 – Anti-Renewable Energy Provisions Defeated
In one of the key votes of the legislative session, senators voted 16-14 to strip the most offensive provisions out of the anti-renewable energy bill – S.30. At different points, this legislation would have blocked wind, solar and other renewable energy sources of various sizes. Had it passed as its sponsors intended, it would have represented a major retreat from Vermont’s commitment to clean energy. With a clear majority of Vermonters demanding more clean energy, not less, VPIRG and our allies worked with Sen. Bernie Sanders and climate champion Bill McKibben to ensure that senators got the message. The 16 senators who voted for renewable power deserve our thanks, as do most House members who further improved the bill.

State Voice in Tar Sands Pipeline Affirmed
As the national and international debate over the Keystone XL pipeline heated up, VPIRG and our partners successfully pressed for more state control over a plan to ship tar sands oil through a 63-year old pipeline in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. VPIRG activists sent in over 1,000 comments to the District 7 Environmental Commission calling for appropriate environmental oversight over any plan by Exxon to ship tar sands through Vermont. The Commission agreed, and ruled that a proposal to reverse the flow through the aging pipeline would require new environmental review.

Health Care

H.530 – Keep Vermont on the Path to Reform
Preparations are well under way to launch “Vermont Health Connect,” the virtual insurance marketplace required by the federal Affordable Care Act, so legislators and the administration spent much of the session considering how the transition would impact Vermonters who have subsidized insurance plans now. VPIRG urged policy makers to keep coverage consistent for those eligible for popular state programs like VHAP and Catamount. In the end, our efforts were somewhat, but not entirely successful. The new law will ensure most low and middle income Vermonters are spared a significant rise in what they pay in health care premiums each month.

H.107 – Holding Health Insurers Accountable

Revealing Health Insurance Industry Secrets – Last year, VPIRG led the effort to require health insurers to disclose financial data and new information on the number and type of health claims they deny (click here to see what we found!). Thanks to the passage of another VPIRG-backed bill this year, Vermonters will soon be able to access the same data from Medicaid as well as private insurers. Enabling consumers to make side-by-side comparisons of health insurance plans (and the insurer’s track-record) is a huge step toward a more transparent health care system.

Rate Review – Vermont already has one of the strongest rate review processes in the country, and this year we worked with lawmakers to make it even better. Thanks to legislation passed this year, consumers will be able to sign up to receive notifications when their insurer is planning to increase premiums—so they have a chance to comment before any proposed increase goes into effect. This law also gives consumer protection advocates (like VPIRG) the means to help the state stop unjustified rate hikes. In Oregon, a similar law has saved consumers over $80 million dollars since 2010, and we expect to see significant savings here in Vermont too.

Democracy

S.82 – Commonsense Campaign Reform: Delayed
Last November, when VPIRG laid out a plan to force Super PAC contributors into the light of day, legislators of all political stripes took notice. The window for passing comprehensive elections reform legislation – which had been closed for years – appeared to open. In fact, the Legislature took steps toward that goal. The Senate and House both approved versions of campaign finance and disclosure legislation. However, VPIRG had to threaten to oppose drafts of the legislation in both houses in order to prevent legislators from opening the floodgates to even more money in politics. In the end, legislators were unable to work out their differences before the session came to an end. VPIRG will be back next year to press for the strongest possible legislation next year to reduce the influence of money and require more transparency from politicians, PACs and political parties.

Under the new law, consumers can sign up to receive notifications when their insurer is planning to hike rates, and can have their voices heard before the increase goes in to effect. The bill also includes other changes to the states rate review program that will make it easier for the Green Mountain Care Board to ensure any rate hike is justified before allowing it to go into effect.  Vermont’s rate review program will now closely mirror a program put in place in Oregon which has saved consumers over $80 million dollars since 2010.

The bill also contained important language that will increase VPIRG’s ability to pull back the curtain on insurance claim denials. Last year, VPIRG helped pass a bill that required insurers report all their denied claims in plain language. After seeing discrepancies in the insurers reporting, we worked with legislators to make sure that did not happen again. The bill also makes it so that next year we will get this same denied claims information from Medicaid as well as private insurers. This information will be essential to our efforts to help consumers make side-by-side comparisons before they buy insurance.

Montpelier, VT – Despite the near-unanimous agreement at the beginning of the legislative session that this would be the year to pass meaningful reforms to Vermont’s campaign finance law, legislators declared the issue dead for the year late yesterday.

The House and Senate had passed differing versions of a bill (S.82) dealing with campaign finance and disclosure this session, and a conference committee had begun to work out a compromise before discussions came to a halt Monday evening.

Word came that the House Republicans were unwilling to suspend the rules as necessary to allow any possible agreement to have a chance to pass this year.  Therefore, further consideration was put off until 2014.

“I’m disappointed, but not shocked,” said Paul Burns, executive director of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group (VPIRG) and a longtime advocate for election reform.  “It turns out that campaign finance reform is just about the toughest kind of legislation to pass, because you’re asking politicians to change the rules of the game that got them elected.”

The Senate’s version of the legislation generally has lower limits on political contributions than the House proposal.  However, the House bill contains a cap on what individuals, corporations or unions can give to a Super PAC, something the Senate bill would do only after such limits are given the thumbs up by federal courts.

Both versions of the legislation would expand reporting requirements and initiate a process to dramatically improve online access to campaign finance data at the Secretary of State’s office.

“Last year Vermonters were treated to the corrupting influence and negativity of Super PACs for the first time.  Most people were sickened by the idea that a single wealthy donor could quietly pour more than $1 million into a Super PAC in order to try to elect or defeat her chosen candidates here,” said Burns.

The calls for reform came from all quarters following the election.  But in the end, nothing passed.

“It’s easy to say that you want to reform the system.  But the proof is in what gets passed and what doesn’t, year after year.  The Legislature’s failure to reduce the influence of money in politics and to expose more clearly who’s giving money to whom is one of the great missed opportunities of the legislative session,” Burns concluded.

# # #

Click here to see how your Representative voted!

The legislature is expected to leave for the summer in the next couple days, and the bill is now set to be taken up by the Senate in January, and hopefully become law this time next year. We will work over the summer to make sure the Senate hears from Vermonters that they want to see Vermont become the first state to pass GMO labeling legislation.

This is a huge victory for Vermont consumers who have been working hard to make sure their Reps. pass H.112 this session. Based on the debate on the House floor it was evident that your lawmakers heard you loud and clear. This brings us one big step closer to labeling GMO foods in Vermont, and it could not have happened without our thousands of supporters in Vermont and across the country.

Supporters of the bill, including VPIRG Consumer Protection Advocate and leading legislators (pictured here), for everything you have done, and stay tuned for the next steps in the campaign!

Click here to see how your Representative voted!

The legislature is expected to leave for the summer in the next couple days, and the bill is now set to be taken up by the Senate in January, and hopefully become law this time next year. We will work over the summer to make sure the Senate hears from Vermonters that they want to see Vermont become the first state to pass GMO labeling legislation.

This is a huge victory for Vermont consumers who have been working hard to make sure their Reps. pass H.112 this session. Based on the debate on the House floor it was evident that your lawmakers heard you loud and clear. This brings us one big step closer to labeling GMO foods in Vermont, and it could not have happened without our thousands of supporters in Vermont and across the country.

Supporters of the bill, including VPIRG Consumer Protection Advocate and leading legislators (pictured here), for everything you have done, and stay tuned for the next steps in the campaign!

Some of the strongest voices of support for the bill came from members of the House Agriculture and Judiciary Committees. Reps. Zagar, Teleno, Michelsen, and Bartholomew explained important aspects of the bill and the many studies that compelled the Agriculture Committee to pass the bill earlier this session.

Judiciary Chair Rep. Bill Lippert spoke about Vermont’s established history of leading the nation on important issues saying,  “When we passed civil unions, we were told that Vermont would be boycotted and that our tourism industry would die. When we passed mercury-labeling requirements, we were told that fluorescent light bulbs would no longer light the rooms of Vermont . . . Now, we are told if we pass GE labeling we will face losing our boxes of corn flakes. … Vermont should move forward, and lead the nation once again. I vote yes, once again, without fear.”

A rigorous debate is expected on the House floor for the final vote tomorrow, keep checking in with us on Facebook and Twitter for the latest on the campaign.