"[T]hose on the left argue that it did not go far enough"

[ProSense]

17. Yes,

"And the effects are not always apparent in the beginning. As with Obamacare, it is a leap in the right direction. Not perfect, no but as seen in Vermont it will eventually lead to single payer. It won't happen by itself, we have to keep fighting hard for it to happen. "

...and from the peice posted here (http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024757591), acknowledgment that Obamacare is helping to drive the momentum toward single payer.

Even as the Affordable Care Act is in its nascent stages, some states are already looking toward 2017 when they can request waivers to opt out of the healthcare exchanges. And a small, but persistent, movement has popped up toward a single payer system as an alternative to participating in the exchanges.

<...>

Robin Lunge, Vermont’s director of healthcare reform, said that Vermont’s goal is to move the issue of healthcare completely away from the employer. Vermont’s single payer system, she said, would be similar to the one state employees are already on. It would be financed through an employer and individual tax as well as the premium tax credits and subsidies provided through the exchanges.

<...>

The state’s Medicare, Medicaid and Veteran’s Administration programs would continue to operate as usual under a plan similar to Vermont’s. In Vermont’s potential single payer system, the system would act as a supplement to government insurance and cover everyone who is uninsured or part of the current state health exchanges.

Obamacare is providing the impetus. Vermont's single payer move has been fully funded by Obamacare.

Lessons from Vermont's Health Care Reform

By Laura K. Grubb, M.D.
The New England Journal of Medicine, April 4, 2013

In May 2011, Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin signed legislation to implement Green Mountain Care (GMC), a single-payer, publicly financed, universal health care system. Vermont's reform law passed 15 months after the historic federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) became law. In passing reforms, Vermont took matters into its own hands and is well ahead of most other states in its efforts to implement federal and state health care reforms by 2014. The Supreme Court decision last June to uphold most of the ACA left many states scrambling, since they had postponed reforms pending the judgment. Although Vermont is a small state, its reform efforts provide valuable lessons for other states in implementing ACA reforms.

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Finally, Vermont policymakers are maximizing federal financing and have projected cost savings. In January 2013, the state released a 156-page financing plan for its single-payer arrangement; the plan outlines federal financing sources and the anticipated generation of savings. Vermont has been awarded more than $250 million in federal funding for its state exchange — the fifth-highest amount among the states, although Vermont has the country's second-smallest state population. “We feel strongly that the exchange is not the answer to all of Vermont's health care problems,” Shumlin remarked, explaining that “the exchange is helpful to Vermont to bring us federal dollars to achieve our single-payer goal.”3 In fact, state exchange development will be 100% federally funded.4

- more -

http://www.pnhp.org/news/2013/april/lessons-from-vermonts-health-care-reform

For everyone who has a problem with ACA--
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024747402