In the next three months, we will witness the difference between a Black man successfully running for president against an old school Republican and the elitist, corporate but law following Republican party that used to exist, and a Black woman trying to best a racist, xenophobic and sexist cult leader in the age of the new, so much more hate filled Republican party. Since 2015, as the cult of Trump has solidified, people who had racist tendencies and thought they had better keep them to their small group of friends, or to themselves due to “political correctness” are out in the world. They are trying to drown immigrant children in swimming pools, slapping an 11-year-old Black child in the face for standing in line with his mostly white class, actually burning a cross to intimidate Black neighbors in South Carolina in 2023. In surveys, nearly 90 percent of MAGA cult members have been convinced that white men are oppressed – more so than any other ethnic group! This has been a head scratcher for me: who runs the world?

Interestingly, while I haven’t done any snooping into past racist insults to Obama, birtherism, created and magnified by Trump, is the most prominent racist insult during Obama’s campaign – when he was clearly born in Hawaii. Trump is now trying to stoke the same stupid insult – that because Harris’ parents were immigrants, even though she was born in Oakland, Calif., she is somehow not eligible to run for president. This gets even dumber when you realize that the VP qualifications are the same as that of the president.

We are already seeing the stupidity of a number of Republican elected officials using the new insult to Black folks: you are a DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) hire. In the case of Harris, this is particularly stupid, because she was elected fair and square – in a number of elections. This new “DEI hire” insult is what a lot of people are equating with the new N word, and it is being used a lot in most inappropriate ways. We also are seeing the many ways stupid men can insult women for living their lives – that troll JD Vance had previously called Harris a “childless cat lady who has no stake in the government because she does not have kids!!” Has anything like that ever been said about a male politician?!

When I learned Biden was answering my prayers and stepping down from what had already become a disaster of a campaign, it felt like the only right answer for Kamala Harris to replace him. I still believe that we will win, but I am shocked – either at myself for underestimating the fundamental racial and sexist hatred of millions of white Americans, or at the actual stupid and pathetic insults this brilliant and accomplished woman of color is enduring on a daily basis.

Donald Trump is super angry about having to face an opponent who makes him look old and highlights his unique brand of dementia. While the cult still worships him, he is going more and more off the planet of sanity with his obsessions with sharks, Hannibal Lecter, low water showers and toilets, and so much other stuff that leaves the sane population scratching our heads. For the population who is not permanently glued to Fox and Newsmax, the contrast between an energetic, youthful appearing, former prosecutor who appears to care about issues such as women’s rights, and a sloppy, rude and crude liar with no policy positions and a constant chip on his shoulder about all the ways he has been wronged should make Harris a shoo-in. But, truly the only way we can honestly lose, I believe, is if the hatred for Black people, and the persistent ideas of women’s inferiority bring Trump back to power.

So how do we combat the hundreds of years that have made so many white Americans believe that they are superior to people of color? How do we combat the centuries of bad religion that convinces conservative members of all desert religions that women are inferiors?

It is simplistic to say that Kamala Harris needs to show the world who she is, what she has accomplished so far, and what she intends to do. It may be simplistic to believe that enough Americans can be convinced to vote for Harris because she is the person we need to stop the Christofascists in the Trump camp, but millions of people seem to be responding with outrage and fear to the 900-page plan to take over the government – Project 2025. This race promises to be transformative in one way or another: we will either end with a fascist government, millions of people will leave voluntarily and by force, tons of jobs would go unfilled (do we really believe native born Americans will pick the crops?) No matter what the liar Trump says, there would be a national abortion ban, including drug induced terminations, and likely birth control restrictions that will eliminate many methods that have helped families plan their futures. Or we live in a country that is deeply flawed in wealth inequality, spends far too much of our tax dollars on war, especially the war on Gaza, and has almost non-existent public transit, among the many problems. But, if Harris is elected, we who believe in a better future live to fight another day.

Nancy Braus is a regular columnist for the Reformer who writes from Guilford. The opinions expressed by columnists do not necessarily reflect the views of Vermont News & Media.

BlueCross BlueShield of Vermont − the largest health insurer in Vermont with a 66% market share − is threatened with insolvency because of its declining reserves, according to a state regulator.

Kevin Gaffney, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation, said Friday he’s confident BCBSVT will remain solvent, which is his department’s responsibility to ensure.

“As solvency regulator, our primary role is protecting the market,” Gaffney said. “We have to have a place for people to purchase insurance or we haven’t done a good job of protecting Vermont residents.”

Gaffney said Vermont’s largest health insurer is at a critical juncture.

“BlueCross BlueShield of Vermont is a big tanker,” he said. “We have to start to turn it. We can do that and there are steps to do it.”

While Vermont has not had a major insurance company fail, according to Gaffney, he said the example of Florida offers a cautionary tale where losses from natural disasters have caused insolvencies in property insurance companies and have triggered other insurance companies to exit the market.

“We have sufficient rigor in our solvency process to avoid these things,” Gaffney said. “DFR is taking those actions in a timely and I think in an appropriate manner.”

Gaffney is requiring BCBSVT to file a plan with DFR by early September, showing how they’re going to “bolster their reserves and improve their solvency.” The key element of that plan, articulated in a “solvency letter” Gaffney sent to Owen Foster, chair of the Green Mountain Care Board, on July 12, is an additional 4% increase by BCBSVT in contributions to its reserve fund.

The Green Mountain Care Board is an independent oversight board created by the Vermont Legislature to regulate major areas of the health care system in the state, including health insurance premiums. The Care Board would have to approve the increased contributions to BCBSVT’s reserve fund.

‘A Fragile Financial Situation’

Don George, president and chief executive officer of BCBSVT, sent an open letter via email on Monday, July 22, titled, “A Fragile Financial Situation.” In the letter, George said the insurer is in the “unprecedented position” of being forced to file an amended request to the Green Mountain Care Board for an additional 4% increase to contributions to its reserve fund, which comes from premiums paid by policy holders. The reserve fund is used to cover unexpected levels of claims, which the insurer has experienced in the past few months.

“Since May, health care claims have increased dramatically, and our member reserve levels have declined precipitously,” George said. “This is in addition to underwriting losses in five of the last six years, leaving us without the means to weather this downturn with existing member reserves. The cumulative impact of underfunded premiums − despite our consistent advocacy for rates that fully fund the cost of our members’ health care − has created this fragile financial situation.”

Sara Teachout, director of government and media relations for BCBSVT, explained that underwriting losses occur when the company is unable to cover the total amount of member claims plus administrative costs. She said administrative costs for BCBSVT are “quite low,” when compared to its peers nationally, but the insurer is still making administrative cuts by not advertising and by restricting new hiring.

“The only year we did not have a loss was 2020, the year of COVID, when people were not going to the hospital,” Teachout said.

BlueCross BlueShield VT asks for an additional $20 million for its reserve fund

The original request for contributions to the reserve fund, filed in May, asked for a 3% increase, which equates to $15 million. The amended request for a 7% increase equates to $35 million, or more than double the original request, according to Teachout.

“Blue Cross VT has advocated for adequate funding of member reserves consistently over time, while our requests were cut year over year,” George said in an email to the Burlington Free Press. “Now with member reserves dangerously depleted, we are forced to increase the rates substantially to cover the deficit.”

Owen Foster, chair of the Care Board, declined to comment for this story because the hearings for BCBSVT’s rate filings are ongoing.

Making sure BlueCross BlueShield VT remains solvent

Gaffney said the reserve fund is “critical” to maintaining BCBSVT’s solvency. He said the health of the reserve fund can be expressed as a percentage − called a risk-based capital ratio range − reached through complex calculations that reflect BCBSVT’s investment risk, but basically the percentage equates to an amount of money that accounts for “volatility.”

“The (DFR) did an order back in 2019 for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont to maintain a risk-based capital ratio range between 590% and 745%,” Gaffney said. “If you can stay in that range you can withstand volatility and not be at risk (of insolvency).”

At the end of 2023, BCBSVT’s risk-based capital ratio range was 337%, far below the required range. Gaffney said in six of the last 10 years, the insurer’s contribution to its reserve “was a negative because of other adjustments to rate filings.” Rates are regulated by the Green Mountain Care Board.

“It is as dire as it sounds,” Gaffney said.

Reserve fund continues to drop this year

BCBSVT’s reserve fund balance has declined by $47 million over the past two years, not including this year’s results, according to Gaffney. The insurer had about $88 million in reserves at the end of 2023, and that number has continued to decline through 2024. Teachout was unable to provide the current balance of the reserve fund.

“We do know the 2023 number was only adequate to cover just under two months of our members’ claims, which is extremely low,” Teachout said. “We should roughly double where we are. Our balance should have been close to $180 million at the end of 2023.”

‘We have to have a place for people to purchase insurance’

The overall context for the discussion of BCBSVT’s solvency is a crisis of health care affordability for Vermonters, both in terms of hospital costs and premiums. Gaffney said he’s not unsympathetic to the affordability issue, but that he has a larger responsibility as commissioner of DFR, and BCBSVT’s solvency regulator.

Gaffney said he also understands that “often it’s felt that these increases are to just bolster profits for insurance companies.”

“That’s not the case now,” he said. “It’s going to take some time to get back into the range of 590% to 745%.”

Vermonters’ declining health is a big, and expensive, problem

George points to the declining health of Vermonters as a key factor in BCBSVT’s financial crisis, in addition to rising hospital costs. He said health care organizations nationwide are experiencing “extraordinary cost pressures,” as a result of “massive increases in the need for medical and pharmaceutical care.”

“As many of you may have experienced in your own lives, we are faced with these same pressures here in Vermont,” George said. “Furthermore, our data shows the continuing impact of the pandemic and an alarming decline in the overall health status for many of our members. These issues are colliding with a decade of state policy decisions to cut deeply into health insurer reserves and premiums in the name of affordability, creating the urgent situation that we are faced with today.”

Not only are there more claims, but there are bigger claims from more acute medical conditions, Gaffney said.

“The takeaway is the price of insurance is a reflection of costs, not a choice the company makes,” he said. “The company runs on narrow margins.”

Contact Dan D’Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosio@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanDambrosioVT. 

Two young people from the South Shore of Massachusetts were killed in a fiery crash in Vermont early Sunday morning.

Members of Vermont State Police responded to a reported crash on I-89 in Middlesex just after 5:00 a.m.

Responding crews found the 2006 Lexus fully engulfed in flames. The driver, 19-year-old Sean Delaney and the passenger, 20-year-old Elana Korey, both from Duxbury were pronounced dead at the scene.

Vermont police say speed appears to be a factor in the crash.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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