{"id":3377,"date":"2014-12-22T15:46:49","date_gmt":"2014-12-22T22:46:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/?p=3377"},"modified":"2014-12-22T15:46:49","modified_gmt":"2014-12-22T22:46:49","slug":"single-payer-falls-apart-in-vermont","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/2014\/12\/single-payer-falls-apart-in-vermont\/","title":{"rendered":"Single-Payer Falls Apart In Vermont"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Vermont<\/a>
Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Vermont, which is an extraordinarily liberal state with at least one openly socialist senator<\/a>, was at one time regarded as America’s frontrunner for single-payer healthcare. But that frontrunner status just changed.<\/p>\n

Single-payer, a disastrous idea on dozens of different levels, means that everyone pays for everyone else’s healthcare, and\u00a0Vermont has just discovered one of the reasons that single-payer is, in fact, disastrous: taxes must rise.<\/p>\n

Quoting the liberal mag Politico<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Advocates of a \u201cMedicare for all\u201d approach were largely sidelined during the national Obamacare debate. The health law left a private insurance system in place and didn\u2019t even include a weaker \u201cpublic option\u201d government plan to run alongside more traditional commercial ones.<\/p>\n

So single-payer advocates looked instead to make a breakthrough in the states. Bills have been introduced from Hawaii to New York; former Medicare chief Don Berwick made it a key plank of his unsuccessful primary race for Massachusetts governor.<\/p>\n

Vermont under Shumlin became the most visible trailblazer. Until Wednesday, when the governor admitted what critics had said all along: He couldn\u2019t pay for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not the right time for Vermont\u201d to pass a single-payer system, Shumlin acknowledged in a public statement ending his signature initiative. He concluded the 11.5 percent payroll assessments on businesses and sliding premiums up to 9.5 percent of individuals\u2019 income \u201cmight hurt our economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vermont\u2019s outcome is a \u201csmall speed bump,\u201d said New York Assembly member Richard Gottfried, who\u2019s been pushing single-payer bills for more than 20 years. But opponents says it\u2019s the end of the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf cobalt blue Vermont couldn\u2019t find a way to make single-payer happen, then it\u2019s very unlikely that any other state will,\u201d said Jack Mozloom, spokesman for the National Federation of Independent Business.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will never be a good time for a massive tax increase on employers and consumers in Vermont, so they should abandon that silly idea now and get serious,\u201d Mozloom added.<\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Might<\/em> hurt the economy, Governor? I think you can bet your health on it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Vermont, which is an extraordinarily liberal state with at least one openly socialist senator, was at one time regarded as America’s frontrunner for single-payer healthcare. But that frontrunner status just changed. Single-payer, a disastrous idea on dozens of different levels, means that everyone pays for everyone else’s healthcare, and\u00a0Vermont has just discovered one of … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Single-Payer Falls Apart In Vermont”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[46],"tags":[2024,578,2617,856,2085,584,2512],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3377"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}