Vermont once dreamed of universal healthcare. This Democrat wants to try again — with a twist.

Protest signs seen at protect Medicaid lights up Capitol amid budget showdown, on May 7, 2025, in Washington, DC. | Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Caring Across Generations Twelve years ago, Vermont Democrats tried to make their state the first in the nation to have a single-payer government-financed healthcare system — a bold experiment to push the limits of American health coverage when Obamacare was just being launched. Their plan failed, and rebooting it became politically impossible, even in Vermont: The Democrats lost the governorship to Republican Phil Scott for what turned out to be a decade. This year, that could finally change. A progressive political newcomer named Amanda Janoo is taking on Scott in what polls show is a tight governor’s race. And if she wins, the state could be poised to try a whole new national experiment: one of Janoo’s central campaign promises is to create a pioneering health system where the state pays the full tab for primary and preventive care, while leaving the rest to the existing system. Key takeaways Amanda Janoo, the Democratic nominee for governor of Vermont, wants to move primary and preventive healthcare to a single-payer system — where the state would pay providers for such care, make it...