Don’t lose your hopes for universal health care in the U.S. It’s true single payer coverage was traded away by our national leaders to keep the insurance lobby happy, but Vermont is leading the way and the rest of us just need to get on the band wagon of this kind of grassroots activism to take back our lives. Single payer insurance is the only way out of the health care dilemma. Free markets are a terrible way to take care of our people because it will always be more profitable to deny a policy than to honor it. Universal coverage is just a smoke screen so long as insurance companies are still free to deny the policies themselves. Vermont has reminded us we can improve our lives if we stop waiting for national leaders to do the right thing. To paraphrase Brecht, “Woe to the democracy that needs heroes.” It’s all about the grassroots. Follow Vermont.