Vermonters are paying the highest health care premiums in the country. Health care costs in school budgets are the single biggest driver of skyrocketing property taxes. It’s only going to get worse with the Trump administration’s One, Big, Beautiful Bill. The legislation is throwing some 45,000 Vermonters off of Medicaid and more than doubling premiums for 30,000 Vermonters. This is an absolute catastrophe for our hospitals, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), Planned Parenthood clinics, and health care workforce, and it is time to fight back.

Nikhil fights for property tax relief by curbing runaway health care spending. Patients at the University of Vermont Medical Center are being charged thousands of dollars more for care than patients at nearby hospitals, while health care executives are making millions of dollars in salaries and bonuses. This must end. Nikhil has been a champion of reference-based pricing and will work to ensure the legislation is a success. 

Health care should be a universal, public good guaranteed for every American. We deserve a federal Medicare for All, single-payer, universal health care system with zero copays, premiums, and deductibles, but we need not wait for Washington to make structural changes to Vermont’s health care system. Nikhil will fight for universal, publicly-funded primary care for all Vermonters as a first step in creating universal health care for all Vermonters. This includes mental health and substance abuse treatment as well as community nurses in every town. By removing the unnecessary and costly insurance middleman, this program will cut the cost of health care, reduce the risk of diseases and disabilities, improve health outcomes and life expectancy, and save lives. 

Nikhil also fights to protect our FQHCs and make investments in community-based care and wraparound health supports in public schools and child care centers. 

He also fights to crack down on price-gouging, protect Planned Parenthood and reproductive rights, expand pipelines into nursing and other critical fields, improve working conditions for staff, ban private equity from buying up nursing homes, and hold the UVM Health Network accountable to the mission of high-quality, affordable health care for all patients.