Vermont officials are beginning what promises to be a provocative push for a statewide single-payer health insurance system that would take the place of President Barack Obama's signature health care law, the state's lone congressman said Wednesday.
Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) told The Huffington Post that his state's local and national lawmakers were "looking to get a waiver" so as to formally opt out of the federal system. Conversations have begun as to how an alternate health care policy might look like should the waiver be granted, Welch said.
"Vermont is very supportive of moving towards single-payer, you have the entire congressional delegation you have the governor who ran on the platform of single-payer and the legislature is very sympathetic to single-payer," he said.
According to Welch, the state's governor, Democrat Peter Shumlin, was receiving a report on Wednesday from one of the architects of Taiwan's single-payer system, which would help inform a proposal tailored for Vermont.
Under the current law, however, Vermont would have to wait until 2017 to get the waiver that would allow the state to set up its own system.
"It doesn't make sense to have it be 2017 because by then the federal law has gone into effect," Welch said. "You are setting up the exchanges and what you end up doing is having states that want to innovate -- in our case single-payer -- have to unwind what we put in place."
Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Scott Brown (R-Mass.) have introduced legislation to move the opt-out date up to 2014 -- an amendment that both Welch and, it appears, House Democratic leaders support.
Like I've said before, if there are state plans out there that can do a better job than the PPACA, let's see your cards. Vermont's looking to put its money where its mouth is and if they can prove it works and works well, other states could join in.
More power to them.
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LOL, I first read "Single Prayer Health Care" before executing a double-take.
Sounds like a GOP policy if I ever heard one. $5 says it's already been seriously proposed.
And when Vermont goes bankrupt from this due to the highest tax rate in the nation and residents leaving in droves, and the rest of us have to pick up the tab, do I still get to say "I told you so"?
How does universal health care at 100% taxpayer expense save the state money?
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