No sense burying the lede:
"Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin on Wednesday dropped his plan to enact a single-payer health care system in his state"
This will come as no surprise to regular IB readers, since we've already seen how Vermont has had major issues just running its own Exchange. Selling health insurance is child's play, though, compared to actually delivering health care, and Governor Shumlin (D-VT) - to his credit - acknowledged that, given the current state of the Obamaconomy, "[t]his is not the right time” for enacting single payer ... citing the big tax increases that would be required to pay for it."
What was perhaps even more interesting is that the plan wasn't even "true" Single Payer, since ERISA (self-funded) plans would have been given a pass. So if Single Payer can't fly in a deep blue state like Vermont, one wonders where can it?
UPDATE: Actually, this saddens me.
Why? Well, we've long supported the idea of 58 state laboratories, each one trying out new (or old) ideas to see what works, and what doesn't. Would have been quite interesting to see if Single Payer would work in Vermont (95.2% white, median income $54,000), and then whether or not that experience was transferable to other less pale, less wealthy states.
Alas, 'tis not to be.
"Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin on Wednesday dropped his plan to enact a single-payer health care system in his state"
This will come as no surprise to regular IB readers, since we've already seen how Vermont has had major issues just running its own Exchange. Selling health insurance is child's play, though, compared to actually delivering health care, and Governor Shumlin (D-VT) - to his credit - acknowledged that, given the current state of the Obamaconomy, "[t]his is not the right time” for enacting single payer ... citing the big tax increases that would be required to pay for it."
What was perhaps even more interesting is that the plan wasn't even "true" Single Payer, since ERISA (self-funded) plans would have been given a pass. So if Single Payer can't fly in a deep blue state like Vermont, one wonders where can it?
UPDATE: Actually, this saddens me.
Why? Well, we've long supported the idea of 58 state laboratories, each one trying out new (or old) ideas to see what works, and what doesn't. Would have been quite interesting to see if Single Payer would work in Vermont (95.2% white, median income $54,000), and then whether or not that experience was transferable to other less pale, less wealthy states.
Alas, 'tis not to be.
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