This afternoon, by a vote of 92-49, the Vermont House of Representatives passed single-payer heath care legislation. As the Boston Globe reports:
Every Vermonter could sign up for state-financed health insurance under a bill passed by the House on Thursday that would put the state on a path to a single-payer health care system by the middle of this decade.
"This bill takes our state one step closer to a system that ensures that all Vermonters have access to the care they deserve and contains costs," House Speaker Shap Smith said shortly after the House passed the bill...
Who could object? Republicans, of course, and, as usual, in inane ways.
((Minority Leader)) Rep. Thomas Burditt, R-West Rutland, went further, arguing that government should sharply reduce, not increase, its role in the delivery of health care.
Burditt quoted V.I. Lenin, leader of the Russian Revolution and founder of the Soviet Communist Party, as saying "medicine is the keystone in the arch of socialism," adding, "I believe those who are promoting 'universal coverage' via government-run and government-controlled medicine know this. What they hope is that the public won't find out the truth. There is nothing compassionate about socialism. "
Well Representative, if ensuring that everyone is entitled to the medical care they need -- just like ensuring that everyone is entitled to an education -- is the end, then I don't really give a flying fuck whether the means is "compassionate" or not. I'm tired of compassionate insurance companies, I'm tired of compassionate claims deniers, I'm tired of compassionate rate increases, and I'm tired of compassionate 7-figure salaried CEOs. Take your existing compassionate health care system and shove it into your large intenstine, if you take my meaning.
How will single-payer come to be in Vermont?
The bill outlines a four-year timeline leading to establishment of the statewide, publicly funded system. It begins by setting up the Green Mountain Care Board on July 1 with a budget of $1.2 million to begin planning the new system. It then creates a health insurance marketplace -- or "exchange," of the sort required by last year's federal health care legislation. And it then calls for converting the exchange to the Green Mountain Care system.
The bill still has to pass the State Senate, but it is expected to be able to garner the necessary votes without significant difficulty.
Of course all is not peaches and cream. For one thing, the bill defers a decision on a funding mechanism until 2013, otherwise known as kicking the can down the road.
And in order to implement the system, Vermont will require a waiver from the Federal Government, something that is currently not possible until 2017. Congress would need to pass legislation allowing waivers to be granted earlier in order for Vermont's plan to come into force before 2017, as the bill proposes. That might take some doing, "state's rights" advocates nonwithstanding.
Nonetheless, this is the first step in a walk of a thousand miles that will eventually see the United States get itself a sane and rational health care system. Like every other industrialized country on the planet.
Updated by jpmassar at Thu Mar 24, 2011 at 05:53 PM PDT
Zounds. Top of the rec list!
Update: Zounds! Top of the rec list!
Update: More info on Vermont and single-payer from Kossack Julie Waters