READ THIS-Vermont about to make HISTORY

It's not perfect but it's a huge step in the fight towards a REAL health care system. Read press here on the fight for single payer in Vermont. The governor there likely will sign it. Yes, it's not perfect but it's better than the national bill and it's a step in the correct direction. Be prepared to help Vermont fight the likely huge battle insurers are already putting up to kill this.

Thank you to Art Persyko of SinglePayerNow for sending these stories about Vermont out to supporters of single payer all over the US.

1)  Vermont single payer heads to governor's desk (http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0511/Vermont_single_payer_heads_to_governors_desk.html)

Politico (blog)

Vermont's single payer health care bill has been passed by both chambers and now heads to the governor's desk -- who is expected to sign it. From PoliticoPro 

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2)  op/ed:  Expect Insurers to Pull Out Stops to Prevent Vermont Single Payer Healthcare

(http://www.opednews.com/articles/Expect-Insurers-to-Pull-Ou-by-David-Pakman-110504-42.html?show=votes)

The Vermont Senate recently gave final approval by a 21-9 margin to a health care reform bill that would establish a single-payer health care system within the state, after a similar bill passed in the Vermont House of Representatives. The bill moves to a conference committee to reconcile the two versions of the proposal and eventually to Gov. Peter Shumlin's desk, who has strongly supported the bill.

Legal hurdles will remain, although Vermont for Single Payer does not believe they will be impediments to enacting the bill. These include obtaining a waiver to opt out of the Affordable Care Act and passing a bill that would allow the opt-out to happen in 2014, rather than the 2017 date specified in that legislation, as well as circumventing laws that prohibit states from enacting legislation related to employee benefit plans.

The proposed single-payer plan would provide publicly financed, government-funded health care coverage for everyone and would be funded by broad-based taxes. It would also sever the ties in Vermont between employment and health care, putting no health insurance mandate on employers.

Advocates of single-payer health care should be prepared and ready for a full-fledged, no-holds-barred campaign from regional and national health insurers to prevent this bill from becoming law, not only because of the potential effect on profitability from losing the 625,000 Vermont residents' health care premiums, but more importantly because those on all sides of the health care debate know the significance of the precedent this bill would set.

It is still unclear whether the Vermont bill, if passed, would result in a France-like system where people receive basic public insurance, and tend to supplement it with additional private coverage, or another variation. We can be sure that the corporate interests that stand to lose money as a result of the bill will continue the campaigns seeking to influence public opinion against the single-payer health care tide.

As a former CIGNA vice president wrote in his book "Deadly Spin," and expanded upon during an interview on "The David Pakman Show," front groups created to spread anti-single-payer propaganda under the guise of being "independent" research organizations will likely be a part of the campaign to keep corporate profits at the forefront of the health care system for years to come.

Reminiscent of the front groups financed by cigarette companies years ago to convince restaurant and bar owners that smoking bans could hurt their business, the single-payer related front groups, many of which Wendell Potter points out are organized by the same public relations firms, will attempt the same tired tactics.

These include suggesting that single-payer health care represents a "government takeover" or "loss of freedom," that care will become worse or less accessible, that government bureaucrats (instead of for-profit insurance companies) will make evil decisions about individuals' health coverage, that health care costs will skyrocket and, of course, that the United States will be a socialist, Marxist, Communist country if single-payer health care becomes part of the national landscape.

Hopefully, Vermont residents and all Americans will be able to find truth amidst the spin, lies, and misdirection, most of which is based on protecting corporate profits and the pro-corporate status quo.

The reality is that when it comes to access to care, even those with above-average incomes in the U.S. have worse access to care than those in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK. Unlike what you will hear parroted time and again, per capita health spending in the U.S. is significantly higher than in Germany, Canada, France, and countless other countries at similar development levels.

It's also important to touch upon the often-heard idea that a single-payer health care system would be inefficient due to government involvement. The best barometer by which to judge that statement is Medicare, which spends a fraction of its budget on administration and bureaucracy compared to for-profit insurers.

On the whole, the Vermont single-payer health care bill, if it passes, would be a significant first step toward national single payer -- in fact, the most significant step realistically on the table during my lifetime -- in terms of the events it could set in motion.

This is made even more compelling by the fact that its source is a meme that has been associated with conservative politics and right-wing political action, namely "power of the states." I argued on "The David Pakman Show" upon first hearing of this proposal that this was a brilliant example of progressive single-payer health care, the conservative way.

The natural question that leads from this is whether a state single-payer health care proposal could end up forcing conservatives to reconsider just how much power they want to leave to individual states.

David Pakman, host of the internationally syndicated political talk radio and television program, "The David Pakman Show," writes a monthly column. He can be reached at http://www.davidpakman.com

 

David Pakman is the host of The David Pakman Show, an internationally syndicated progressive talk radio and television program airing on over 110 stations across 4 countries, on DirecTV, DISH Network, and across the web on a hugely popular podcast (more...)

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3) Vt. lawmakers resolve immigrant health care issue

By DAVE GRAM

(http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9MVVDE82.htm)

MONTPELIER, VT.

Vermont Senate negotiators dropped an amendment to bar illegal immigrants from coverage under a new state health care program, delivering a victory Monday evening to human rights activists who had rallied repeatedly at the Statehouse to demand the change.

Instead, the three senators serving on a House-Senate conference committee suggested studying the issues surrounding providing health care to an estimated 1,500 to 2,500 undocumented farmworkers in the state, as well as others in Vermont illegally. Their House counterparts readily agreed to the proposal.

The fight over coverage for illegal immigrants was a late-session storm in otherwise smooth sailing for the centerpiece of Gov. Peter Shumlin's legislative agenda: a publicly financed, universal health care system that had broad support from Shumlin's fellow Democrats who control both houses of the General Assembly.

After the Senate last week adopted the amendment proposed by Sens. Randy Brock, R-Franklin, and Richard Sears, D-Bennington, activists with the Health Care is a Human Right Campaign of the Vermont Workers' Center, who had been providing strong grass-roots support for the health reform measure, turned on the senators.

Brock continued to defend his amendment Monday night, arguing that it is in keeping with federal law, and that if Vermont wants the federal permissions it needs to pursue its envisioned health system reform, it can't flout federal immigration law.

"It's clear we need a federal immigration policy that makes sense, and we need a guest worker program," Brock said. "But it's also clear that Vermont cannot and should not provide insurance coverage to people who are not here lawfully."

Brock is not on the conference committee, and the senators who are showed their willingness to jettison his and Sears' amendment under pressure from the activists.

Sen. Claire Ayer, chairwoman of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee and the leader of the Senate conferees, read from proposed legislative findings that pointed out apparent contradictions in federal law:

"Federal law requires certain health care providers to provide emergency treatment to all individuals, regardless of immigration status. Federal law prohibits coverage of undocumented immigrants through Medicaid and through the Exchange," a new health insurance marketplace that the Vermont bill calls for setting up, in keeping with the federal health care law passed last year, the proposed findings said.

The Senate proposal called for asking the Green Mountain Care Board, which already is to conduct several other studies to get the state ready for universal health care, to add the immigration issue to its list.

House conferees quickly agreed.

"The human rights perspective certainly is a worthy one," Rep. Michael Fisher, D-Lincoln, vice chairman of the House Health Care Committee and a member of the conference committee, said in an interview shortly after Monday evening's session. "There's also financial issues that warrant our attention, and legal ones."