Bernie Sanders’s “Medicare for all” plan would face enormous challenges in the United States and cause all sorts of political backlash. Feeling skeptical? Just look back to the efforts of Sen. Sanders home state of Vermont.
Back in the early 2010s, the state mounted a strong, years-long attempt to build such a single-payer system, with the backing of the governor, the legislature, and even many hospitals and businesses, reports Sarah Kliff. Hopes were high and as Kliff notes, “When I went to Vermont’s capital, Montpelier, in March 2014… the working assumption among pretty much everyone I spoke to was… this time, a single-payer plan would actually happen.” And then it didn’t.
