Single Payer Health Care Dies in Vermont

For the last few years, universal health care advocates watched Vermont with hopeful eyes as the Green Mountain State attempted to become first in the nation to adopt a single payer health care system.   The prospects for universal, publicly funded health care in the rest of the country were slim. But in the progressive state of Vermont, health policy wonks saw a hint of possibility. Gov. Peter Shumlin, a liberal Democrat, centered his entire agenda on implementing a single payer system.