Vermont Passes Country’s First Single-Payer Healthcare Law

Posted by Pelliciari on May 27, 2011

Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin

Vermont Gov. Pete Shumlin “treats healthcare as a right and not a privilege.” Well done Vermont, well done. Healthcare Finance News reports:

In what he described as “both an opportunity and an obligation,” Vermont Gov. Pete Shumlin has signed the country’s first single-payer law, setting the state on a course to be first with a publicly financed healthcare system.

Shumlin, who campaigned for governor on promises to pursue a single-payer system for the state, took little more than four months since his January inauguration to set the state on that course.

“We gather here today to launch the first single payer system in America, to do in Vermont what has taken too long – to have a healthcare (system) that is the best in the world that treats healthcare as a right and not a privilege, where healthcare follows the individual not the employer,” he said at the bill signing, held May 26 in the state’s capital of Montpelier.

But the law he signed won’t create a single-payer system immediately. Instead, it authorizes the formation of the Green Mountain Care Board, which will first aim to rein in the rising cost of healthcare in the state – a rate that is 12 times faster than the state’s economy. The five-member board will be charged with creating a reimbursement system for doctors and hospitals, a benefits package and the method for financing the system.

[Continues at Healthcare Finance News]

Posted in: Government, Health, healthcare, insurancem, medical insurance, Politics, single-payer, state, State Law, Vermont

Barack Obama

This seems . . . to be very . . . good news. I applaud the efforts of progressive legislators in the great state of Vermont.

However . . . in order . . . to make . . . similar progress on the national level . . . we must appeal to . . . the preferences and concerns of . . . a much broader and more diverse constituency .

Which is why I support the inclusion of an amended federal Health Care Reform bill that is . . . responsive . . . to the job creation potential . . . of Ameica’s largest campaign donors–I MEAN ‘largest employers’ . . . .

Bill HR666, crafted in a close . . . bipartisan consultation . . . with the American Legislative Exchange Council (”ALEC”) and the foremost experts in the correctional institutions industry . . . will both create, for the first time ever, a universal single-payer health care system for all unincarcerated Americans, regardless of region, race or class, and . . . create powerful business incentives for the owners of private correctional facilities to harvest the blood and organs of facility guests in order to underwrite massive new efficiencies in prison management and the provision of replacement organs for needy individuals . . . such as the tragic victims of this January’s Arizona shootings . . .

Blah-blah-blah . . . bipartisan cooperation . . . blah-blah-blah . . . puddles in Heaven . . . I killed Osama bin Laden with my own bare hands . . . Blah-blah-blah.

Thank you.
Haystack

So do they, like, all speak Russian there now?
Zeke Aphobia

Well, good luck to them, wit’ all the snakey Canadian divils comin’ on over da bohrdurr to git ahold uv da free healt’ care an’ awll . . . Sure, they’ve painted thimsilvs into a right cahrner, hasn’t dey?
Andrew

Concentration camps are next.

I’m kidding.
Rex Vestri

A step in the right direction for Vermont! We should have single-payer on a national level.
Hadrian999

hopefully they will be able to counteract the corruption that is sure to follow, if the corruption is anything like it is in medicare they will have their work cut out
DeepCough

See, it’s takes a truly liberal administration to pass real healthcare reform.
Anonymous

This is a terrible thing, fuck all of you
Anonymous

This is a terrible thing, fuck all of you
Anonymous

This is a terrible thing, fuck all of you
Anonymous

The people of all the other first-world countries and all those of many of the developing ones too graciously disagree with you.
Anonymous

It reads more like Shatner to me
Boobs

I like the idea of letting states try this. I am fully against it on the federal level, especially since lawmakers in Washington cannot seem to write a single responsible, unwasteful bill or spend within their means on necessary things instead of tedious regulations all over everything and a world empire. If states do it themselves we might find a system that works, although I doubt it, government never runs anything well but at least anyone who doesn’t want it can opt out by just moving away. Obama is a shill though, liberals, if you think he is any different than Bush, you are stupid, but Obama sucks. Let liberals have their government healthcare.. AT THE STATE LEVEL… sink or swim.
Boobs

Its fine with me if states want to do this. If you dont like it, you can opt out by moving to another state. Maybe they will make it work, I doubt it though.
Rawghosts

PLease explain to ignorant Brit, why public health is not a social responsibility? I’ll give you $10 if you can do this without referencing some left, right, liberal or republican ideology.
Skullfaceflamenco

This is not health care. This is a mandate forcing people to buy insurance. And of course, we all know how the insurance companies treat people… Forcing people to buy insurance will make poor people poorer, and insurance companies richer.
Anonymous

Mostly because America is a nation of rather poor health at the moment, particularly in large segments of the impoverished population, and to take care of everyone would be much too expensive. In Britain, the public health care system is facing some of the same issues and the government has begun to cut off healthcare to people who have unhealthy lifestyle habits such as refusing cancer treatments to some smokers.

Ideally would we take care of everyone? Sure, but practically it just won’t happen.
Hadrian999

think about the savings that would come from removing the profits and payrolls from the entire medical insurence business, true cost of medical care is much different than the current cost that supports paracytic organizations
http://twitter.com/BozoDeathGod BozoDeathGod

And Glenn Beck just earned his wings.
Isaak841

I thought this happened in Massachusetts already… and was a major flop? or am I mistaken?
Isaak841

How would you propose anyone do that? A person’s values are often based on their worldview. What you are saying with this statement is essentially “abandon yourself when you counter my argument” – in no uncertain terms an impossibility.
Anonymous

Which is why I brought the example of Britain where those things don’t exist, yet they are still having a hard time affording their own population’s healthcare.
5by5

This is the real direction things are going to go in. And thank heavens for that.
5by5

Massacussetts doesn’t have single-payer. It has Romney Care, which is basically what Obama gave to the rest of the country. A combo of Romney Care and Bob Dole’s health care plan from 1994. Obama just gave America Republican health care.

Which is NOT the same thing as a Medicare-for all type program which is what the majority of Americans wanted.
5by5

No they’re not. They’re fine. We’re the ones having problems paying for our healthcare.

Vermont Passes Country’s First Single-Payer Healthcare Law

more disinformation

more disinformation