Weekly Pulse: Vermont Poised to Pass Single-Payer
By Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium
Vermont is poised to abolish most forms of private health
insurance, Lauren Else reports for In These Times. The state’s
newly inaugurated Democratic governor, Peter Shumlin, unveiled his health
insurance plan in early February. If the state legislature passes the
bill, Vermont will become the first state to ban most forms of private
health insurance.
The bill is getting support from some unlikely
quarters:
On February 24, the Republican Mayor Christopher Louras, of Rutland, urged the state to adopt the single-payer legislation, noting that more than a third of the city’s $7 million
annual payroll is consumed by healthcare costs.“The only way to fix the problem is to blow it up and start over,” Louras said.
