Apr 04 2011
Vermont On the Verge of Single Payer Healthcare
At the National Governor’s Association meeting last month President Obama issued a challenge. Responding to attacks on last year’s health care reform legislation he said, “If your state can create a plan that covers as many people as affordably and comprehensively as the Affordable Care Act does — without increasing the deficit — you can implement that plan.” The President also pledged support for bi-partisan legislation that allows states to opt-out of the ACA in 2014, three years earlier than the original year of 2017. Of the two states rising to meet the opt-out challenge—Oregon and Vermont—it is Vermont that is on a fast track to implementing a viable alternative in the form of a single-payer health care system. Last week, the Vermont House passed its version of the single-payer legislation in a 92-49 vote. It is currently being debated in the state Senate. Vermont’s Democratic Governor Peter Shumlin campaigned on the issue of a single-payer system and is expected to back the current bill. The Valley Advocate reports that if approved an independent public body would design a benefit package and set the parameters for the single payer system. It will be the first system of its kind in the United States, and is estimated to save Vermont $580 million annually, $1.9 billion by 2019, and create 4,000 jobs in the process.
GUEST: James Haslam, President of the Vermont Workers Center
Find out more at www.workerscenter.org.
One Response to “Vermont On the Verge of Single Payer Healthcare”
There is no uprising here! The problem is Vermont has to get a waiver from the feds to be able to do it. The problem with Vermonters is that they are side tracked from the real issues. The wars are costing trillions of dollars yet Vermonters seem to only be concerned with getting healthcare?
Vermont passed a bill to close Vermont Yankee yet 10 days after the earthquake in Japan the Feds renewed their license.
The problem that Vermont has is the federal government.