The Single State With Single Payer

Today, Vermont Democrat Gov. Peter Shumlin signed legislation creating the country's first single-payer state health care system.

Last month, the Vermont Senate passed legislation, approved earlier by the House, that would establish a single payer health care system in the state. The legislation would make Vermont the first state in the nation to, as Gov. Peter Shumlin (D) said, make health care “a right and not a privilege.”

The governor’s office just confirmed for ThinkProgress that Shumlin signed the legislation into law this morning, making the state the first in American history to pass legislation that will establish a single payer health care system to provide care to all citizens. Now that the law is signed, Vermont will spend the next four years setting up the system and preparing it for implementation.

In order to actually enact the system, the state needs a waiver from the Affordable Care Act health reform law. Currently, the federal government will start handing out state waivers in 2017 — three years after Vermont wants to implement its system. Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) has introduced an amendment that would move the waiver date up to 2014, an idea that President Obama has endorsed.

And many expect the waiver bill to pass, as many red state Governors want out of the PPACA completely in order to implement their own state systems.  Only Vermont is going to full single-payer route however.  If Vermont's system works, it should be the model for the entire country, frankly.  But the state has taken a huge step into the history books today, and more power to them.