Burlington Free Press
Written by Ellen Oxfeld
Gov. Peter Shumlin signed the new health
care bill into law Thursday. Many people
may wonder how we came to this point.
Why is it that Vermont is the first state to
pass legislation that acknowledges that
health care is a public good, and that the
best route toward universal access and
cost control is to create a healthcaresystem
that is publicly funded? There are still many
more steps to go be fore we reach this
goal.
One thing that makes Vermont different is
that the campaign for single payer in this
state has been broad-based and involved
multiple organizations and thousands of
individuals at the grassroots level over
almost two decades.
The Vermont Workers Center (VWC) is one
of the groups that has done a superb job
of organizing people from 2008 onward —
focusing on health care as a human right.
Their organizing built upon the earlier and
still continuing efforts of many other
individuals and groups — creating
unparalleled energy around this issue.
In 2009, for instance, public meetings were
held all over the state on healthcare and
for single payer. Many were part of the
VWC campaign. Other meetings were
organized by independent groups including
religious and community groups. Sen.
Bernie Sanders also held many health care
related events around the state.
These 2009 meetings followed on the
heels of a 2008 campaign for H.304 — a
single-payer bill for hospitals. Hundreds of
people traveled to the Statehouse for
several large events to advocate for H.304
in the winter of 2008, organized by
Vermont Health Care for All (VTHCA).
Additionally, Dr. Deb Richter of VTHCA
traveled the state and spoke at more than
400 forums between 2000 and the
present, introducing the concept of single
payer to numerous citizen groups.
In 2005, former state Sen. Cheryl Rivers, in
coordination with Richard Davis of Vermont
Citizens Campaign for Health organized for
single payer on Town Meeting Day, and
succeeded in getting many towns to vote in
support of the concept.
Large statewide demonstrations for single
payer have been organized by VTHCA
(1,200 people at the Statehouse in 2002)
and the VWC (over a 1,000 people coming
to their May Day rallies in 2009, ’10 and
’11). Smaller demonstrations for single
payer also occurred almost every year at
the Statehouse, and in other venues —
such as a 2009 rally of several hundred
people at the Obama administration’s
regional health care summit in Burlington.
Unions and even business groups have also
organized around the concept: several
groups come to mind here including the
AFL-CIO and other unions, Vermont
Businesses for Social Responsibility, and
even the League of Women Voters.
Because so many groups have been
involved, and so many citizens have
weighed in on the issue, this state was
fertile ground for lawmakers and
candidates who advocated for single payer.
Not all of them won, but they helped make
the issue prominent. I don’t have space to
list everyone here, but Anthony Pollina and
Rivers come to mind. And, of course,
Shumlin made single payer prominent in his
campaign and won, and Sanders has long
advocated for single payer and helped
legitimize the reasons for it to a broad
public. We should also not forget that it was
Peter Shumlin, as Senate president pro-
tem, who first contacted William Hsiao in
December 2009 for the express purpose
of inviting him to testify in the upcoming
legislative session.
All of these efforts, and probably many
more than space allows me to include,
made for an ideal scenario in advancing
the cause of single payer in the legislative
agenda. Because Vermont is a state where
citizens really get involved in issues, it is
still possible to see legislation pass that
advances the common good.
Ellen Oxfeld lives in Middlebury.