Senator
Bernie Sanders says it’s critical for supporters of a federal, single payer
health care system to keep the issue in front of voters in the coming years.
Legislation
that’s designed to move Vermont
to a publicly financed health care system won final approval in the House
yesterday afternoon and the bill is now on its way to Governor Peter Shumlin
for his signature.
The
bill is one of the Governor’s top priorities for the 2011 session.
By a 94-49 margin, Vermont House lawmakers have voted to approve a bill that would give the state a universal, publicly funded health care system. A strong supporter, Gov. Peter Shumlin is expected to sign the measure once it reached his desk.
Negotiators have signed an agreement on the
big health care overhaul bill. The House and Senate have spent the past
week or so trying to resolve differences in their different approaches
to the bill.
In
the debate over Vermont’s universal health care legislation, activists say
they want to make sure that undocumented workers on the state’s dairy farms are
covered. Lawmakers went through some last-minute wrangling over the health-care
bill.
With the Legislature entering what is supposed to be its final week, a large
crowd gathered at the Statehouse yesterday to support a bill that would move
the state toward a single payer health care system.
After
hours of debate, the Senate last night gave its preliminary approval to
Governor Peter Shumlin’s health care bill.
The vote on the measure was 21 to 8.
Backers
of the bill said it’s needed to help curb the skyrocketing cost of health care. They note that these costs have doubled in Vermont in the past 5 years and that 200,000 Vermonters are still
either uninsured or underinsured.