Amid health insurance affordability crisis, most Vermont hospitals seek moderate budget changes at annual hearings

Vermont hospitals presenting annual budgets in public hearings this month largely aligned their proposals with state regulatory guidelines or suggested even lower or negative growth rates. That’s a marked difference from the last two years when most hospitals’ requests exceeded the benchmarks for budget growth set by the Green Mountain Care Board.

Staff and board members at the state’s top health care regulator, alongside health care leaders, have been immersed for two weeks in hearings to review 2026 budget requests for the 14 hospitals under the board’s regulatory purview. The fiscal year for hospitals in the state begins Oct 1.

The annual hospital budget hearings are transpiring amid an ongoing health care affordability crisis, with the state’s largest insurers teetering on the edg