MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Hospitals, doctors, drug companies, insurers and others with a stake in health care spent more than $750,000 lobbying at the Vermont Statehouse this year as lawmakers debated landmark legislation designed to put Vermont on the road toward universal health insurance.

But exactly how much was spent on the bill itself is impossible to tell. That's because Vermont's lobbyist disclosure law is vague, and the reporting system used to implement it is not specific enough to allow for a dollar-by-dollar accounting, according to lobbyists, good-government advocates and lawmakers.

The head of Common Cause-Vermont called the lobbyist reporting system "regrettable;" longtime Montpelier-based lobbyist Kevin Ellis called it "horrible."

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