The Vermont Senate on Wednesday voted 25-2 to approve a compromise health care bill that would establish a new state-funded insurance program for the uninsured and require employers to pay assessments if they do not offer health care coverage to their workers, the Burlington Free Press reports.

The state House on Tuesday approved the bill after Gov. Jim Douglas (R) and state legislators reached an agreement over the role of private insurers in the legislation (Remsen, Burlington Free Press, 5/11). Under the agreement, if private insurers fail to voluntarily offer the new insurance program, state regulators could require them to offer it. After two years, the Commission on Health Care Reform would determine whether having the program offered through the private market is cost effective. A consultant selected jointly by the governor and the commission would conduct the evaluation (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 5/11).

The new program, to be called Catamount Health, would offer health care coverage to about 30,000 uninsured state residents who do not quality for other public health programs, such as Medicaid. The state would subsidize premiums on a sliding scale based on participants' incomes (Remsen, Burlington Free Press, 5/11). The bill also sets a standard of care for any policies offered to the uninsured and creates programs to track and manage hospital infections.

Funding for Catamount Health, which would provide coverage for primary and preventive care, and for the disease management initiative would come from the federal government, a 60-cent-per-pack increase in the state's cigarette tax and payments that tobacco manufacturers will make to the state beginning in 2008 (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 5/11). In addition, the bill would require employers to pay a $365 annual assessment for each full-time equivalent employee if the company does not offer insurance to employees, if it offers insurance only to some employees or if it offers insurance but some employees remain uninsured. Employers would be allowed some exceptions to the assessment during the first four years of the program. The bill now goes to Douglas for consideration (Burlington Free Press, 5/12).