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After Vermont lawmakers passed the Universal and Unified Health System Act (H. 202), Governor Peter Shumlim, on May 26, signed America's first universal system, a measure heading state residents for full coverage with lots of hurdles to overcome to make it fair, equitable and affordable.
Nonetheless, Shumlin relished the moment, saying we're:
"here today to launch the first single payer system in America, to do in Vermont what has taken too long - to have health care that is the best in the world that treats (it) as a right and not a privilege, where health care follows the individual not the employer."
"This law recognizes an economic and fiscal imperative. We must control the growth in health care costs that are putting families at economic risk and making it harder for small employers to do business."
On May 26, Physicians for a National Health Program's (PNHP) National Coordinator, Dr. Quentin D. Young said:
"We salute the single-payer activists in Vermont and applaud their efforts. Although this is not a (true) single-payer bill, we will continue to support the struggle to achieve health care justice in Vermont and across the nation."
A PNHP press release said H. 202 "is much more modest in its actual reach than a (true) single-payer plan," providing universal affordable coverage as a human right, no strings attached.
"As of now, the federal Affordable Care Act prohibits states like Vermont from adopting their own models of reform until 2017." Shumlin and other Vermonters want it earlier in 2014. Other states, including California, are considering variations of single-payer.
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