Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin signed a healthcare reform bill Thursday that will make Vermont the first state in the nation to offer single-payer healthcare. The Vermont Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act aims to stem the rising cost of healthcare and provide universal coverage. Gov. Shumlin held a signing ceremony in Montpelier.

Gov. Shumlin: “We gather here today to launch the first single-payer healthcare system in America, to do in Vermont what has taken too long: have a healthcare system, the best in the world, that treats healthcare as a right and not a privilege. Most importantly, a healthcare system that is sustainable, that spends our healthcare dollars making Vermonters healthy, not on insurance company profits, and not on waste and inefficiency. We will get this done in Vermont.”