Senate rejects Jan. 1 start for health insurance mandate

Sen. Michael Sirotkin, D-Chittenden. File photo by Erin Mansfield/VTDigger ​
The state Senate wants to slow down efforts to make health insurance coverage mandatory in Vermont.
Senators on Wednesday voted to approve a version of H.696 that establishes a working group to study how the state would administer and enforce an individual health insurance mandate.
But the Senate decided that the state’s mandate shouldn’t start Jan. 1, as had been called for in the House version of the