Kos: When it came time for the hard work of implementing single payer in Vermont, Bernie was AWOL

[Cali_Democrat]

Bernie Sanders' Single Payer Vermont
by brooklynbadboy

<...>

That doesn't seem so bad to me. Healthcare has a price, obviously. The tax increases would be offset by no longer having to pay premiums. For businesses, no more having to pay for health insurance for their workers. This was the progressive reform every liberal has been calling for. Vermont's legislature passed it, the Governor signed it. The taxes needed to make single payer a reality are modest. There is Democratic super majority in both houses. All that was needed was the political courage to do it. The courage to act with truth and conviction.

Where was Bernie Sanders?

When single payer was a theory, a campaign talking point, and progressive dream, Bernie Sanders was all in. When the Governor and legislature enacted it into law, Bernie Sanders touted it as a model for the nation:

“If Vermont can pass a strong single-payer system and show it works well, it will not only be enormously important to this state, it will be a model,” Sanders said in 2013.

Vermont is without a doubt the most liberal state in the union. It is the only state that has single payer healthcare as law. Bernie Sanders was instrumental in fighting for that law. He made lots of speeches advocating it, much as he is doing now running for president.

But when the time came for the hard work, the difficult task of pushing, cajoling, persuading, 'leading the people' as Sanders likes to say, to get Vermonters and the legislature to accept the necessary tax increases to make single payer a reality, Bernie Sanders was AWOL.

He said he's planning to go forward. He said the debate isn't finished. So lets hear it. What will Bernie Sanders do about single payer healthcare in his own state, where it is already law?

Single payer advocates in much less friendlier states, and in the Washington he seeks to govern, would love to know.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/06/27/1397137/-Bernie-Sanders-Single-Payer-Vermont

[Report1212]

1. Does this random blogger on daily kos (its not markos, who also isnt too bright) understand federali

US Senator does not handle state issues. This isnt how federalism works.

[arcane1]

2. Indeed, "brooklynbadboy" doesn't seem to know much about Civics 101 n/t

[Luminous Animal]

4. And I know for a fact that State office holders do not like it AT ALL when Federal office holders

try to muscle their way into their business.

[brooklynite]

22. So you're saying that President Sanders won't be weighing in on any local or State issues?

The next Ferguson? A Governor cracking down on Unions?

[bullwinkle428]

25. You realize that "giving an opinion" and "leaping in armpits-deep" are two

substantively different things, no?

[restorefreedom]

3. just more inaccurate mudslinging

we better get used to it.

[Agschmid]

5. Not sure VT is the most liberal state..

Bloggers.

[Uncle Joe]

6. Yes Governor Sanders should've pushed that through... but wait

what is this you say, Sanders wasn't in state government!?

?w=676

[jfern]

7. Got to love the Hilllary supporters

Yesterday: "Sanders' $15 trillion single payer is too expensive"
Today: "The junior US Senator didn't manage to convince everyone in the state to pass single payer"

[CanadaexPat]

8. He's still done more for single payer than Hillary has

Or ever will.

[madfloridian]

9. You should clarify that Markos did not write that.

It is from Daily Kos, but written by another blogger.

[Cali_Democrat]

12. Read my OP again. I indicated the author. nt

[demmiblue]

10. You seem to have a bee in your bonnet.

I hope you are not allergic.

[99th_Monkey]

11. I see. Bernie just got re-elected by 71% for being "AWOL" in Vermont. Got it!

[99Forever]

13. Do you or the yahoo who wrote this drivel (in crayon, no doubt)...

... realize that United States Senators are not part of state governments?

It appears not. Why the fuck would anyone read any further when an assclown writer doesn't even understand the most basic things about how governments operate?

[NCTraveler]

14. Sanders is an activist for progressive causes and a good one.

He has not shown himself to be a leader. People will think that is some kind of diss but it simply isn't. More Sanders on the ground means continuous movement in the right direction. I can't see where he has done anything but support single payer. The work is done by executives in states.

[yardwork]

15. What's the point here?

The blogger seems to be confused by the difference between a governor and a senator.

[MoveIt]

16. The point is to throw a bunch of stuff against the wall to see what sticks n/t

[seaglass]

21. Well you can look at a Governor (Romney) and a Senator (Kennedy) working together to pass healthcare

in MA because healthcare was so important to Kennedy. If it was so important to Bernie and he is so popular in VT, why couldn't he help in some way?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/us/politics/ted-kennedy-helped-shape-mitt-romneys-career-and-still-haunts-it.html?_r=0

[GeorgeGist]

17. Failed Civics did we?

[Oilwellian]

18. Except there is this...

The Affordable Care Act of 2010 presents another legal barrier to state reforms. A central element of the act is the requirement for all states to have a health insurance exchange by 2014. The exchange is to be a marketplace where individuals and employers can buy health insurance and also receive federal subsidies for premiums and cost sharing. For Vermont, having to run such an exchange alongside its own single-payer program would mean running two systems with similar goals but different administrative structures, which would not be economically feasible.

However, the Affordable Care Act gives states a way out of this conundrum. As of 2017 states will be allowed to apply for a waiver from the law’s terms if they can demonstrate that they are pursuing other ways to provide at least equal coverage and benefits to residents. In that instance, states will be able to receive a waiver and a lump sum equal to the funds that would have been paid as subsidies to individuals and small businesses.

Vermont’s law, as enacted, will not implement a single-payer system until the state receives a waiver in 2017.

http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/30/7/1232.full

[JackInGreen]

19. Shhhh

Facts are pesky things, best leave them out.

[Rose Siding]

28. Is the governor lying when he says he's abandoning it?

Calling it the biggest disappointment of his career, Gov. Peter Shumlin says he is abandoning plans to make Vermont the first state in the country with a universal, publicly funded health care system.

Going forward with a project four years in the making would require tax increases too big for the state to absorb, Shumlin said. The measure had been the centerpiece of the Democratic governor's agenda and was watched and rooted for by single-payer health care supporters around the country.


http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/local/2014/12/17/shumlin-right-time-single-payer/20547557/

I was happy when VT got this legislation passed. It was targeted to begin in 2017 but would need to be funded. Now it won't be.

[Oilwellian]

29. Thank you for proving the point

Bernie has no control over what happens to universal health care in his state.

[beam me up scottie]

20. If anyone wants to see an epic smackdown of this crap read the comments.

Bbb really embarrassed himself and so did the op by reposting this idiotic hit piece on DU.

This idiotic old hit piece.

Get some new material.

[ibegurpard]

23. you know who wasnt AWOL?

The insurance industry and pharmaceutical industries who are using the billions of taxpayer dollars transferred to them by the ACA to finance whatever means necessary to assure their position will never be threatened.

[pinebox]

24. I love the Hillary supporters

because while posting stuff saying "Bernie was afk", they seem to miss the fact that Hillary is all together AGAINST single-payer entirely. Oooops!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-zuesse/hillary-clinton-likes-oba_b_4881399.html

Speaking to a closed-to-the-press meeting of the "HIMSS14" (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Conference 2014) in Orlando Florida on February 26th, she condemned the Canadian and other nations' single-payer healthcare systems by saying, "We don't have one size fits all; our country is quite diverse. What works in New York City won't work in Albuquerque." The presumption is that what works in Canada cannot work here, that local control must trump everything in order to fix what's wrong with American health care.

[Oilwellian]

31. LOL...there is that as well. Great point!

[workinclasszero]

26. Where was Bernie Sanders?

Where was Bernie Sanders?

[Rose Siding]

27. Tilting at windmills

[workinclasszero]

34. Hes still going strong

at that too.

[djean111]

30. In Washington DC, doing his job.

[Oilwellian]

32. When? n/t

[Gothmog]

33. If single payer does not work in Vermont, where will it work?

[99Forever]

35. Most of the rest of the 1st World nations.

Congrats for posting the most ill lnformed, ignorant question of the day.

[Motown_Johnny]

36. Sanders is not in state government.

Why would he have a part in this? I don't expect my US Senators to try and get Michigan's roads fixed. The state is responsible for that.

The argument makes no sense to me at all.

[shireen]

37. i don't understand ....

Bernie was serving in the House at the time. Enacting single payer in Vermont was a state matter, and Bernie could not interfere directly in that legislative process.

So what am i missing?

[kenfrequed]

38. Personally I wouldn't post this even if it was my candidate

It would only cause me some discomfort by indicating my lack of awareness of the difference between state and federal offices.