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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
Rights & Democracy VT
The Root Social Justice Center
United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America Local 255 (Hunger Mountain Coop)
United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1459 (Brattleboro Coop)
Vermont Center for Independent Living
Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism
Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals AFT Local 221 (UVM Medical Center)
Vermont Interfaith Action
Vermont Workers’ Center
Voices for Vermont's Children
Women's March on Montpelier