Vermont Approves Single-Payer Health Care: 'Everybody in, nobody out' - Occupy Democrats

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

About. Damn. Time.

They estimate a twenty five percent savings. Actually that should be possible even with all the state residents covered properly. Fifty percent is possible once the initial catch up period is done. Actually in Canada each province runs it's own health care system. So there are some differences between provinces.

Per capita with all Canadians covered is half the current American expendatures. Even though a lot of people are not covered in the states. Under single payer the doctors can work for much less and still take home the same bucks as their overhead is vastly reduced. Hospital services are billed at cost of course with no profit allowed.

What is not discussed is the deductables,copays etc total eliminations. That may be an additional direct savings to the citizen. A lot of people will be watching Vermont.

I also wonder if it might attract some business to the state. Vermont touches Canada and the physical location has been a thorn for some time I imagine as well.

A citizen of that state must be all to aware of what the actual situation is just to the north. People in close proximity talk. It would be interesting to see the results if having a single payer system option was placed on a state ballot.

I have come to believe that the change over cannot really come through the federal government. I think the insurance companies have that controlled. The best the federal government may do is just to enable it at the state level.

A state by state attack on the health care corporations may be the only way really possible to beat them off.

I hope Vermont is also diligent enough to tackle the drug industry as well. They may have to do this to make it work.That may be a hard one down the road but should be doable. Some state has to be the first to take them on.

There are just too many current problems around the health care issue in America for things not to start happening. It is also too much of a major distraction.

What is not talked about is if the current system where kept more or less intact. It would become an unbearable load on the economy at some point. We Canadians are all too aware of the costs even at half the current Americans per capita cost. How much Vermont actually gains from this move may be dependant on how quickly other states go this way.

My own long held original opinion as a Canadian of the ideal sustainable system. You pay a reasonable rate for office calls out of pocket. Say up to three hundred a year Everything else is covered 100 percent. In Canada this was felt to hurt the poor so it was not adopted. Fifty years later I still think it may have been better.

I think you're right. Focusing on individual states is similar to guerrilla warfare. At the federal level, the insurance companies can amass their forces and carry out a frontal attack. It may be harder to resist when the battle is fought on multiple fronts. Ironically, the Southern hard right would have to agree with this tactic given their ideological commitment to state's rights. The result would be that northern and western states would adopt single payer systems and the advantages would become apparent, drawing away businesses from the south which has been attracting businesses for a long time as a result of strong anti-unionism in the region. So eventually, the South would adopt single payer systems to keep their businesses from leaving.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

What fabulous news! It's nice to see a state willing to do tho obvious thing to benefit all. The article didn't address how this is paid. Does anyone know the range of taxation increase to finance this?

I bet the insurgence thugs and their lap dogs feel the knife blade this runs into their hearts, and the best element appears that this option, according to the article, is that this is built into the ACA.

buncha dang ol' socialists

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You're a daisy if you do.
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84 Euro 240D 4spd. 220.5k sold
04 Honda Element AWD
1985 F150 XLT 4x4, 351W with 270k miles, hay hauler
1997 Suzuki Sidekick 4x4
1993 Toyota 4wd Pickup 226K and counting

True. We spent a winter in Vermont and still call it the US experiment in communism.

Our version of the State Motto: Arrive on vacation, leave on probation. Borrowed from people we met there. Everyone we met seemed to be either state employees or their customers. They get people in "The System" and don't let them go.

You probably won't hear much about the fight but I promise you that this won't be pretty. The only way I see a single payer system is if it is privatized. Might be that Wallstreet can properly drain the system without privatization. Promises to be interesting. Glad I'm not there.

"45,000 Americans die every single year because they cannot afford treatment, are you ready for that? That is 15 times the amount of people that died during the September 11, 2001, attacks, or perhaps for you Righty’s out there you would rather see it put this way, 11,250 times the amount of people that died in the Benghazi attack. That equals 5 Americans that die every hour, of every day, of every year because of a preventable illness that was not taken care of due to lack of access and means."

Yet VT also has one of the lowest crime rates in the country, despite unrestricted carry laws (don't even need a permit to carry a pistol). Unemployment is something like 4.5%, much lower than the rest of the country. Good universities. Good schools on average. High political representation per capita. Lots of "crunchy" hippie ladies around Burlington, which I find lovely.

I think I'm moving to VT eventually if I stay in the US! Socialism done right is a great thing.

Where we were you could go almost anywhere on a dirt road or on a snowmobile. It is a cool place but the winters are too long. You gotta like winter activity to live there. I could be happy there.

If you are thinking of living in Vermont, Canada might also be an option. Ottawa is pretty great as cities go.

Pistols are too heavy to carry. I don't even like carrying keys or change. Permits are easy, I have one and rarely use it. I am kinda fond of shotguns these days.

I love winter -- I'm not a snow-phobic ladyboy, and I am an avid skier If I'm to move out of the country, it would likely be to Berlin, not Canada, since as a dual citizen I can legally live/work anywhere in the EU without any pesky application process.

I do love Montreal, though. It also has the advantage of being rabidly non-Anglo, and thus being less poisoned by the Anglo/Dumberican media than the rest of the US and Canada.

Beats me how single payer system could be privatized without the creation of a corporate monopoly, unless it had to be re-bid every so often or something.

__________________
You're a daisy if you do.
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84 Euro 240D 4spd. 220.5k sold
04 Honda Element AWD
1985 F150 XLT 4x4, 351W with 270k miles, hay hauler
1997 Suzuki Sidekick 4x4
1993 Toyota 4wd Pickup 226K and counting

Technically it is possible. Except then it would cost more. The nature of administrative costs has to be continually beaten down. Just by nature otherwise they tend to grow continuously. Making a living or better from sick people other than by the medical personal doing the work is and has been ethically questionable in my mind.

Monopoly is another word that seems to have lost any useful meaning. We are surrounded by monopolies and nobody seems to care.

If you have two main players in a market and they both are financed, insured, supplied, serviced and largely owned by the same entities it functions economically as a monopoly even if it is a duopoly. Competition is just a show.

As it is now the hospitals are largely owned by the same entities who own the insurance companies and pharm companies, etc. Shake the box and the pieces fall right back together even if they look a little different.

True that.
Call me an optimist but I still haven't given up on HR 676

__________________
You're a daisy if you do.
__________________________________
84 Euro 240D 4spd. 220.5k sold
04 Honda Element AWD
1985 F150 XLT 4x4, 351W with 270k miles, hay hauler
1997 Suzuki Sidekick 4x4
1993 Toyota 4wd Pickup 226K and counting

It is just good something somewhere in the current American health care system has started to change. I was not expecting the Vermont type move at this time.

The acts changes in Washington were so confusing. That alone I thought brought time against any really signifigant change. No American should underrate the signifigance of the Vermont move either.

It is equivelant to an earthquake. I did not think it was really on the horizon by anyone at this time. If Vermont can make it work other states will. Still it is 2017 as a target total implementation date by Vermont.