Health care: Amidst royal weddings and birther craziness, a news item that seems to have been lost

Vermont's Senate Passes Bill for Single-Payer Plan

By Althea Fung
National Journal
April 27, 2011

Vermont is on the fast track to becoming the first state with universal health care with the passage of a single-payer health care bill on Tuesday.

The Vermont Senate approved the bill 21-9 to offer government-funded health insurance to all state residents. The bill will now go to a conference committee, where the House and Senate will hash out the differences in the bill before sending it to Gov. Peter Shumlin, a Democrat.

Shumlin will have to obtain approval from the Obama administration before he could begin to implement the single-payer system, which would begin in 2013. President Obama offered waivers to states to implement their own health care systems if the state's plan covers as many people as the federal overhaul at the same level of coverage, and if it doesn’t add to the federal deficit.

(More here.)