09/01/2015
We turn now to Vermont, where a sit-in demanding single-payer healthcare erupted during Gov. Peter Shumlin’s inaugural address on Thursday. This comes after Shumlin backed down in December on his promise to create a single-payer healthcare system in the state. During Thursday’s sit-in, protesters sang songs and expressed their disappointment as they called out their demands and were arrested. We speak to James Haslam, director of the Vermont Workers’ Center, which coordinates the Healthcare is a Human Right Campaign.
We turn now to Vermont, where a sit-in demanding single-payer healthcare erupted during Gov. Peter Shumlin’s inaugural address on Thursday. This comes after Shumlin backed down in December on his promise to create a single-payer healthcare system in the state. During Thursday’s sit-in, protesters sang songs and expressed their disappointment as they called out their demands and were arrested. We speak to James Haslam, director of the Vermont Workers’ Center, which coordinates the Healthcare is a Human Right Campaign.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We
turn now to Vermont, where a sit-in demanding single-payer healthcare
erupted during Governor Peter Shumlin’s State of the State address on
Thursday following his inauguration. This comes after Shumlin backed
down in December on his promise to create a single-payer healthcare
system in the state. Shumlin first won election in 2010 with a pledge to
make Vermont the first state in the country with a single-payer system.
But in a report released at the end of December, he said the program
would draw fewer federal funds than expected, and tax hikes needed to
fund the system had proven too high.GOV. PETER SHUMLIN: I’m not going to undermine the hope of achieving critically important healthcare reforms for this state by pushing prematurely for single-payer when it’s not the right time for Vermont. ... This is the greatest disappointment of my political life so far, that we couldn’t advance this ball as quickly as we had wished. But we shall persevere. We shall get it right. We shall push on.AMY GOODMAN: During Thursday’s sit-in, protesters sang songs, expressed their disappointment, as they called out their demands and were arrested.
PROTESTERS: We, the Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign, we demand the speaker of the House, Shap Smith, commits the Vermont Legislature to schedule a public hearing on Governor Shumlin’s financing proposal by January 29th. Healthcare! Human right! Healthcare! Human right!
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