Vermont: Single payer health insurance coming to a snowbank near you
Tuesday, May 24th, 2011I must admit that two of the big reasons I moved to Tucson in 1981 were the blizzards of 1978 and 1979– that and the fact that my significant other said, “I can’t stand this. Let’s move!”
Since I heard that the Vermont Legislature has passed single payer health insurance, I find myself pondering snow again.
Vermont’s Governor Peter Shumlin has scheduled a bill-signing ceremony for later this week. From the Daily Kos…
While the silence from most of US mainstream media remains deafening, the print and online news publication for physicians published by the American Medical Association – American Medical News – reported yesterday May 16 that Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin has scheduled a bill-signing ceremony for May 26 during which he will sign a bill approved by the Vermont Democratic-controlled legislature, with the state Senate voting 21-9 to pass it on May 3, and the House adopting it on May 5 with a 94-49 vote “that paves the way for the state to launch a health system approaching a single-payer model later in the decade and to create a state health insurance exchange”…
All Vermonters would be eligible for the plan, which would cover hospital services and prescription drugs.
Shumlin had pledged to enact a single-payer health system during his January 6 inaugural address, saying “Let Vermont be the first state in the nation to treat health care as a right and not a privilege.”
Check out the whole story here. It gives many details.
Republican presidential hopefuls like Mitt Romney are pushing the state-by-state patchwork “solution” to rising healthcare costs, as an alternative to the Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare). I think that’s a really dumb idea that is obviously driven by ideology and not common sense or fiscal responsibility. If you live in the United States, you live in the United States. Vermonters shouldn’t have universal healthcare while Arizonans have death panels.
