Single Payer advocates: ready to put your money where your mouth is?

[brooklynite]

Just had a chat with Gov. Peter Shumlin of Vermont. He's up for re-election in 2014 (they're on a two-year term cycle) and expects his race to get challenging when he rolls out the details of his Single-Payer Health Care system. If you want a platform to show how single-payer can be successful, you might want to give him some help. (max allowable contribution is $2,000)

[handmade34]

1. I seriously recommend this post

yes, his race will be a tough one… he is not my favorite politician, but he is so much better than the others…

Shumlin needs to continue with the evolution of Howard Dean's work here in getting everyone in Vermont health care

[cali]

34. what??? I seriously doubt it will be remotely a tough race

Who would present a challenge to Peter? Scott has said it's very unlikely he'll run and who else is there? Randy Brock?
That worked out well for the repubs last time.

Outside of Scott there are no other republicans who could mount a credible statewide campaign.

Every pundit and analyst, both dems and republicans say that Shumlin is as sure a bet for re-election as any governor up for re-election.

[Laelth]

2. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[Fantastic Anarchist]

3. Reccing the fuck out of this!

Thanks for posting!

[gopiscrap]

4. I will contibute what I can

[JanT]

5. i want a platform to show how single-payer would work

contributed $10. its all i can afford right now. i hope that this comes true. it would be wonderful to see it an action. i believe health care is a right. not a privilege. thanks for sharing the information. i also liked his page so i can follow the journey to 2014.
2014 will be a very important year for this country.

[burnsei sensei]

6. Reward good behavior.

nt

[seveneyes]

7. It will be good to see how Vermont plans to fund it

If everyone has skin in the game then it may just work out. They don't appear to have all the details worked out yet. It sounds like not everyone in Vermont will be part of it according to these words from the link...

Vermont also has yet to answer how it will cover everyone. The post-2017 system is not envisioned to include federal employees or those with self-insured employers that assume the risk of their own coverage and are governed by federal law, including IBM, one of the state’s largest private employers. It also may not include residents who work for and get insurance through companies headquartered out of state, Olson said.

[cali]

35. the word is that it will be funded through a payroll tax

[ancianita]

8. Still, the plan isn't rolling out for another three years. So it's more a campaign issue than a done

deal, no? I'm happy to contribute, since that's my habit, but still...the rollout is so far off.

[Demo_Chris]

9. REC!

[titaniumsalute]

10. K and R

[Bucky]

11. I'm still waiting to hear the details on the Republicans' "Single Prayer" plan.

Democrats only want you to have insurance so you'll be healed. Republicans want you to be [font size="4"]HEEEE-YAALLLLDah!![/font].


(and it's cheaper, too, if you don't waste all your money on snake chow)

[DissidentVoice]

13. It's quite simple.

Die.

Alan Grayson described it quite succinctly.

[DissidentVoice]

12. Good on ya, Guv'Nor

Vermont is way ahead of the rest of the country on so many things, especially health care...of course, the fact that they share a border with Quebec probably doesn't hurt!

However, I fail to see how support of the Guv'Nor's campaign will help non-Vermonters? If the Vermont Legislature passes this, and Gov. Shumlin signs it, great, great for Vermonters...but what about us poor sods in the other 49?

[GreenStormCloud]

15. One state can start a wave.

Look what Florida did for gun owners when they went shall-issue in 1987. At that time many states banned CCW, now all states allow some form of CCW and most are shall-issue.

Vermont could start a trend.

[PoliticalPothead]

16. I expect my state (California) to be one of the first to follow Vermont's lead.

I am not so optimistic about red states though.

[Jesus Malverde]

32. Hey there!..

Welcome to DU!

[seveneyes]

17. Their small population is what makes it possible to attempt

I doubt any large states will try it until they see the details and outcome of a smaller state.

[GreenStormCloud]

22. That is one of the purposes of the states.

They are to be laboratories where different things can be tried.

[freshwest]

24. The ACA is set up to help states that want single payer. All it takes the people wanting it and...

turning off faux noise!

[DissidentVoice]

30. But that's the trick, isn't it?

Fux Noise, Limpbollocks, et. al., are SO pervasive that getting around that is going to be like trying to blow down the Berlin Wall with a silent fart.

Not to mention that too much of the American public has been brainwashed (yes, I'll use the term) to believe that anything close to single-payer is "creeping socialism."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan_Speaks_Out_Against_Socialized_Medicine

There are many decades of misinformation and outright lies about single-payer to overcome. Josef Goebbels' "Big Lie" theory is very applicable here.

Vermont, yes. A state that elects an unapologetic socialist (Bernie Sanders, one of Congress' few legislators of conscience, as I see it) and shares a border with Canada is going to be more amenable to it. California, too. New York, most of New England, yes.

But the reddest of red states? I live in Michigan now, but I was born and raised in Indiana, which is as "red" as anywhere in the Deep South. I remember when Bill Clinton's dead fish of a health care plan was happening in 1994, when I still lived in Indiana. There were billboards, marquees, you name it, saying that Clinton's plan was going to transform us into the USSR. And people believed it! I remember seeing a car with a bumper sticker that said "Clinton Change" on it...it was red, with gold lettering, and the "C's" were hammer-and-sickles.

Multiply that by all of the Deep South, and probably much of the Midwest.

I am not saying it cannot be done, but it is going to take a lot of people being willing to re-think decades of propaganda.

[cali]

36. it passed and was signed into law a couple of years ago

but it's not slated to come online until 2017.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermont_health_care_reform

[Cryptoad]

14. Here Hear! nt

[Enthusiast]

18. Done! K&R........nt

[roamer65]

19. Vermont may be our Saskatchewan. N/t

[IronLionZion]

20. Posting on message boards that single payer is better, is not enough

good for you for posting that there is a real live state in this country that is implementing a state single payer system.

One liberal state at a time. We can do this. We can see single payer in this decade. Get Dems to win across the board tomorrow and 2014.

[Zorra]

21. Done deal. nt

[mike_c]

23. done-- thanks for posting this!

the K and the R

[grahamhgreen]

25. Happily donating:)

[DirtyDawg]

26. I'm all for...

...a 'single payer' system, but, and given my limited resources, I'm saving my 'max' donation for the serious politician that's gonna 'lay his political career on the line ' for an overhaul of how we run, and pay for, political campaigns, and especially, the complete elimination of 'all' campaign contributions and the 'legalized' bribery that it represents. Just think, without the influence of big money lobbiests', we'll actually find out which ones are honest and caring and which ones are just crooked SOBs. Plus think about how many 'issues' we're fighting over that, absent money, would turn out differently...say like for 'the good of the people'.

[riderinthestorm]

27. Big K&R! nt

[Zeke L Brimstone]

28. Not sure a Brit can donate to an American politician

But you definitely need a government-funded system. Obamacare, if you'll pardon my saying so, is the best thing insurance companies have seen in quite some time.

[DissidentVoice]

31. Good observation.

The ACA is a hell of a lot better than the status quo, but it falls far, far short of your NHS and the systems in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and most of Europe.

President Obama had to have known that the Republicans would not sign on to any plan he put forth. So why did he try to "get them on board" by keeping Big Insurance as the gatekeepers of health care in this country?

[emsimon33]

29. K&R

And I'll give what I can. I am off to Act Blue right now!

[cali]

33. thanks, but huh?? Who the heck is there to challenge him??

The only person I can think of who could mount a credible challenge to Shumlin is Phil Scott and he says it's very unlikely he'll run:

http://digital.vpr.net/post/lt-gov-scott-says-its-unlikely-hell-run-governor

People I talk to here who know, don't think it will happen.

One can't emphasize enough how dysfunctional the Vermont republican party is. Calling it a mess is being charitable.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20131108/NEWS03/711089951

Larry Sabato puts him in the safe dem category. So too do all other pundits and analysts from left to right and everywhere between.

Gov. Peter Shumlin (D) is serving as the chairman of the Democratic Governors Association this cycle, which means he’s spending his time worrying about the campaigns of other Democrats, as opposed to his own. Vermont is one of two governorships that is contested every two years, but Shumlin — first elected narrowly in 2010 and then comfortably in 2012 — should be fine. SAFE DEMOCRATIC

http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/governors-2014-the-incumbent-avalanche/


I don't think any republican has announced plans to run. I can't think of any repub outside of Scott who could possibly be a real thret.