Vermont Governor Shumlin Signs Health ‘Exchange’ Bill

Gov. Peter Shumlin has signed into law the next step in a multi-year effort to revamp Vermont’s health care system and make it more like Canada’s.

The bill Shumlin signed on Wednesday calls for setting up a regulated health care marketplace — or “exchange” — in keeping with the federal health reform law passed two years ago.

Vermont plans to use the exchange as a springboard to launch a system which is to be as close as it can get to a single-payer health insurance program by 2017.