We Support Healthcare is a Human Right

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Our healthcare system is in a moral and human rights crisis. Millions of people in the U.S., and thousands of people in Vermont — including many of our members — cannot access the health care we need. We are uninsured, underinsured, or cannot afford the premiums and co-pays that our current market-based system requires.

Attacks on our healthcare will not stop any time soon, and the system we have under the Affordable Care Act still denies millions of Americans and thousands of Vermont residents the human right to healthcare. Vermont needs a universal healthcare system that fully meets our healthcare needs and is publicly and equitably financed — not a system which treats our health as a commodity.

The Healthcare is a Human Right movement won passage of Act 48 in 2011, establishing a universal healthcare system in Vermont. The statute resulting from Act 48 states:

“The purpose of Green Mountain Care is to provide, as a public good, comprehensive, affordable, high-quality, publicly financed health care coverage for all Vermont residents in a seamless and equitable manner regardless of income, assets, health status, or availability of other health coverage.” (33 V.S.A. § 1821).”

However, in 2014, Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin and the Vermont legislature abandoned that promise made to all Vermont residents. This has resulted in continued suffering and thousands of people not being able to get the health care they need.

At a time when our human rights are under attack, we call on Vermont’s elected officials to fulfill the promise set forth by Act 48: treat healthcare as a human right by finishing the work of designing and funding Green Mountain Care.

350Vermont

BALE - Building A Local Economy

Brattleboro Solidarity

Burlington Herb Clinic

Green Mountain Self Advocates

International Socialist Organization

Justice For All

Lost River Racial Justice

Migrant Justice / Justicia Migrante

Peace & Justice Center

Railyard Apothecary

Resource Generation