Four years ago, the Vermont state government approved a plan to implement a single-payer health care system — the first in the country — by the year 2017. Last December, Gov. Peter Shumlin (D) announced that it was “not the right time” to move forward with that plan.
Recently, more than 100 economic professors signed a letter urging Shumlin not to give up on universal health care.
“Evidence from around the world demonstrates that publicly financed healthcare systems result in improved outcomes, lower costs, and greater equity,” the professors said. “Public financing is not a matter of raising new money, but of distributing existing payments more equitably and efficiently.”
On Wednesday’s edition of The Big Picture, Thomm Hartman explained that America actually already has a great framework for a universal health care system — Medicare. With a little tweaking and a simple bill from Congress, the entire country could have access to the program.
