Several Chittenden-23 candidates back universal primary care; differ on how to protect hospitals

Health-care affordability and preserving local hospital services were recurring topics at the forum. Eric Post said he would like to "return to an, like, finished a job on single payer," acknowledging the issue "is bigger than Vermont" but expressing support for universal approaches and workforce incentives to keep providers in underserved areas.

Ray Garofano and other candidates also raised universal primary care as a policy avenue to reduce high-cost services and improve prevention. Lynn Smith described feedback from the Vermont Medical Society and advocated reducing administrative overhead and returning more management control to individual facilities. Pearl Lucero Beckage emphasized protecting essential rural services while finding savings in administrative overhead and duplicative hospital-based care.

No candidate presented concrete legislation during the forum; most described broad policy preferences and potential areas for pilot programs or incentives to place clinicians in underserved regions.