Since we began the campaign just over four years ago we have:
2011
Dec 14: Healthcare Is A Human Right Members Come Out for Financing Listening Sessions: "Despite the seemingly overwhelming number of members of the Vermont Workers Center, the group that ran the “Health Care is a Human Right Campaign,” at the Burlington event, Lunge said there has been a diversity of opinion." See full VT Digger Story: http://vtdigger.org/2011/12/16/shumlin-administration-takes-pulse-of-businesses-preferences-for-health-care-financing-system/
Dec 3: Victory opposing sale of VT dialysis clinics to for-profit corporation. See Times Argus story "$26M Dialysis Deal Rejected" http://www.workerscenter.org/video/times-argus-26m-dialysis-deal-rejected
Oct 3: Green Mountain Board Gets Started. Campaign statement: http://www.workerscenter.org/gmcboardstatement
May 26: Vermont governor signs into law Act 48, groundbreaking universal healthcare bill making healthcare be treated as public good. See Seven Days article: "Like Healthcare Reform? So does Vermont Workers' Center" http://www.workerscenter.org/node/957
Universal = Everyone: VWC and Migrant Justice lead fight to defeat amendment which would exclude undocumented workers from Vermont's universal healthcare system. See Colorlines story: "Vermont Breaks Ground in Health Coverage for Migrant Workers" http://www.workerscenter.org/node/1834
May 5: Rutland Herald Editorial on campaign: "Democracy In Action" http://www.workerscenter.org/node/953
May 1: Over two thousand people gather at Statehouse for Healthcare Is A Human Right Rally. WPTZ: Hundreds Rally For Health Care In Montpelier: Major Celebration After State Senate Passes H.202 http://www.wptz.com/news/27738083/detail.html
Apr 25: Vermont Legislature passes universal healthcare bill. See Huffington Post: "Vermont Senate Passes Bill for Universal, Publicly Financed Health Care" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anja-rudiger/vermont-single-payer-_b_853999.html
Mar 28: The Nation Features campaign: "Vermont's Struggle for Single-Payer Healthcare" http://www.thenation.com/article/159158/vermonts-struggle-single-payer-healthcare
Mar 15: Healthcare Is A Human Right supporters flood universal healthcare hearing. See Rutland Herald/Times Argus story: "Single-payer supporters dominate public hearing" http://www.workerscenter.org/node/772
Jan 23: "Vermont can lead the way" by Peg Franzen, VWC President. http://www.workerscenter.org/node/760
Jan 5: Day 1 Legislative Kickoff Rally draws 300+ Vermonters demanding action on universal healthcare and deliver thousands of petitions to new Administration and Legislature.
2010
▶ TRUTHOUT.ORG: "Single Payer Isn't Dead: How States Are Keeping The Movement Alive" Read online.
▶ DEMOCRACY NOW!: "Vermont Workers' Center at US Social Forum in Detroit" Watch online.
▶ HUFFINGTON POST: "Vermont's New Universal Healthcare Law: A Model for Health Reform Based on Human Rights " Read online.
▶ ACT 128 PASSES: Universal Healthcare Bill Becomes Law Read the press release.
▶ RUTLAND HERALD/TIMES ARGUS EDITORIAL: "Gov. Douglas, Do No Harm" Read the online.
▶ Our May 1st Rally at the Statehouse was a big success! Read the press release.
▶ Released "If Vermont Leads, the Rest of the Nation Will Follow, a short film about the campaign;
▶ After sending thousands of emails to the Senate Health and Welfare Committe, witnessed our human rights principles become part of the language of bill S.88, an important first step towards making healthcare a human right in Vermont;
▶ Enlisted people across Vermont to represent the campaign at their town meetings;
▶ Received the support of Vermont labor unions;
▶ Rallied with nurses and physicians to launch a sign-on letter from healthcare providers demanding that Vermont lead the way on healthcare reform, read more here;
▶ Started the People's Team to keep Vermonters informed on political developments in Montpelier, read the up-to-date blog here;
▶ Mobilized hundreds of Vermonters to testify in front of the joint healthcare committees on January 12th;
▶ Delivered over 4,000 postcards to the statehouse on January 6, showing the widespread support for making healthcare a human right. Click here to read the press release;
2009
▶ Organized the largest (1200+) weekday rally at the statehouse on May 1st, 2009;
▶ Held a series of “People's Forums on Healthcare" in ten counties as accountability sessions with seventy state legislators and hundreds of Vermonters
▶ On October 8, 2009, we received endorsements in editorials by two of Vermont's three largest newspapers, the Pulitzer Prize Winning Rutland Herald and Times Argus, read here: http://www.workerscenter.org/node/138
▶ Held “Human Rights Hearings,” attended by over 700 Vermonters, in seven locations statewide;
▶ Met with Sen. Doug Racine, Chair of the Senate Health & Welfare Committee, and Vermont nursing leaders gaining his commitment to holding hearings on our bills. See more here: http://www.workerscenter.org/node/145
▶ Released an updated report on December 10, International Human Rights Day, detailing how Vermont can lead the way in our country to realize the human right to healthcare;
▶ Built organizing committees in the majority of Vermont's counties;
▶ Mobilized hundreds to confront right wing protesters at Congressional town hall meetings more here: http://www.workerscenter.org/node/117
2008
▶ Surveyed over 1500 Vermonters about their beliefs about healthcare and experiences with the healthcare system, finding that over 95% believe that Healthcare is a Human Right;
▶ Based on the surveys and hearings, we put together and released a report and video Voices of the Vermont Healthcare Crisis: The Human Right to Healthcare.