Is Vermot the First State With Universal Healthcare?

Vermont Senate panel unanimous on health reform

Vermont Legislature committees don't ordinarily clap or shout "yahoo" when they vote out a bill, but Wednesday, members of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee celebrated their unanimous recommendation on the contentious health reform bill

"It is done," Chairwoman Claire Ayer, D-Addison, declared following the 5-0 vote on the committee's revised version of the bill, which would put Vermont on the road toward creation of a government-financed health insurance plan called Green Mountain Care by 2017. The legislation, a priority for Gov. Peter Shumlin, already passed the House.

I just heard about this today. Apparetnly,Vermont is about to be the first state in the US with a single-payer health system (if I understand the legislation correctly)

Vermont Senate inches toward health care vote

Lawmakers are inching closer to a vote on the bill that sets Vermont on the course to a single-payer system. The vote could come as early as Friday if debate on several proposed amendments moves quickly.

The Senate Health and Welfare Committee signed off on the legislation last week after making some changes to the version passed by the House. Those include reducing the authority of the special board that will oversee health care decisions.

Does anyone know if this has passed the senate yet? It is my understanding that this has already passed the house.

Heres what Bernie Sanders has to say about the legislation.



Edit - There is some (harsh) language in the above video, just lettin yall know

S&F for mentioning it.

Unfortunately, we can forward to the people who will no doubt bash universal healthcare, Vermont and liberals.

That's fine with me as a registered voter in that state.

reply to post by buni11687


So Vermont is actually going with it huh? Maybe the world then will see that it works....oh wait....I said that wrong. The world ALREADY knows it works, seeing as how nearly every non-third world country other than the U.S. has free or nearly free medical care. Not to mention the U.S. comes out far below such countries in various studies of Health care effectiveness....For instance...this one.

OECD
USA Ranking on Health
care Quality Index: 37
(1 France and 2 Italy) –
World Health
Organization 2003

reply to post by bhornbuckle75


If the Vermont single-payer plans works out well, I would guess there will still be people that think its horrible. I still dont understand how almost every other modern nation has universal healthcare but we dont. In the video in the OP, I find it a bit terrible that the organization of doctors that go help 3rd world countries, now have to primarily work in the US. Ill try to look up the organization and see if they have anything to say.

Does anyone know if the legislation has passed yet? Ive looks through the news but still cant find any updates on it?

a single payer system will never work

and heres why

no competition that drives prices on goods and services down.!!

it will be a total and epic fail.

the reason our healthcare system stinks right now is because of regulations that have killed off competition

and agian people more people competing to brings goods and services to markets drives their prices down.

sorry people its the truth

Massachussets has had state run health care by years. It's actually what Obama says he based his plan off of and it was signed into law by Mitt Romney when he was governor.

Hardly the first and likely not the last in a very long list of failed attempts to socialize medicine.

Tenncare of Tennessee a failure
Massachusetts Healthcare Reform Painful Mistake
Ugly Truth About Candian Healthcare and Candian Public Healthcare at Crossroads

Or, let's cross the big pond and take a gander at how stellar the UK system is...
How the UK Rations Healthcare

I'm tired of Googling... There are literally thousands of articles just like these. What the Liberals/Socialists always lose site of is that liberal/socialist policies ALWAYS fail because eventually, you run out of other people's money.

It would be the first state to implement universal health care, the seperation between this and what MassCare did was that MassCare simply required you to have insurance and subsidized you if you didn't make enough money.

What they're doing in Vermont is allowing everyone that lives in the state to be covered by the state-run insurance. It allows you to go to whatever doctor you want wherever you want in the state and be covered fully. No copayments, no bills. A little extra tax. Nothing is free.

If you think the only options are to be sick or to go into bankruptcy, go ahead and keep your system. I think I'll move to Vermont.

reply to post by buni11687


I haven't heard of the organization working mostly here in the US...if you find a link for that, I'd love to read it. As for whether the legislation has passed....no I haven't heard anything about it, then again I did put a lot of effort into finding out yet. If I find info I will post a reply though...

Here's the status of the bill from the legislature's website. Here's the version the house passed.

Statement of purpose: This bill proposes to set forth a strategic plan for creating a single-payer and unified health system. It would establish a board to ensure cost-containment in health care, to create system-wide budgets, and to pursue payment reform; establish a health benefit exchange for Vermont as required under federal health care reform laws; create a public–private single-payer health care system to provide coverage for all Vermonters after receipt of federal waivers; create a consumer and health care professional advisory board; examine reforms to Vermont’s medical malpractice system; modify the insurance rate review process; and create a statewide drug formulary.

reply to post by neo96


36 countries provide some sort of universal coverage to their citizens. 28 of those are 'industrialized' nations. Germany has a combination of public-private insurance coverage, but every single one of their citizens is covered.

The US pays more in health costs than any other nation on the planet. Isn't 'free market' competition supposed to keep costs down? Why doesn't it work for us when zero competition seems to work for so many others?

Because there is no competition here. The corporate insurance companies agree to a set standard of costs, it doesn't matter to them who's can cost less, it matters who can charge the most while paying the least amount. So what happens? Prescription drugs start costing more, because the drug companies need more money too, they found they can get patients to have doctors prescribe their medicine, even if the doctor is unsure of it.

Drug commercials are banned in Europe to prevent this.

Doctors have years of student loans to pay off so they need to start charging more. Did you know the only debt that you can't get rid of through bankruptcy is student loan debt?

There's a lot of suck in this world, not all of it comes from Washington.

reply to post by neo96


No, if SPHC is passed, then the insurance companies will lose money.

That's their only reason for wanting to kill off SPHC.

Nothing to do with competition.

And Americans already pay an atrocious amount for health care.

Maybe it's time you looked at similar models in other countries, especially the successful ones (which you'll no doubt ignore, based on where you stand politically) and got an education on how they work.

reply to post by kozmo


Again, no mention of success stories.

Despite what you think, you haven't done enough googling. There has to be balance in fact-reporting, which requires both sides to be present.

reply to post by links234


actually people are under the assumption that the us has a free market and it doesnt


the extreme control of government and their regulations have killed off that competition

that is the reason that there are few providers and the costs are skyrocketing.

reply to post by The Sword


fine you know everything and i know nothing

moving on.

and carry on

reply to post by neo96


Well, this system is going to affect me, not you.

Why get so worked up over it then? You don't live in Vermont.

reply to post by The Sword


"Both sides" assuming that there are other sides - success stories, but there aren't any... at all. Like I said, they all end in the collapse of the system over the cost of maintaining it. For every happy story about how great the system is, likely from the benficiary's perspective, sans the payor's, I can show you three that discuss the financial dangers, failures, bankrupcies, rationing etc... that are the realities of these government-run programs.