Did you notice? Did you see what happened when everyone was complaining about a website? Single-payer got started in America.

Vermont is using authority granted under the Affordable Care Act to start a single-payer system. Most Americans still don't know what the phrase "single-payer" even means. It had little support in Congress in 2009 and Senate "Democrats" like Nelson and Lieberman even killed the public option. But, ACA had this sweet little provision that allowed states to set up a single-payer system and now people will see it in action. You know what that means.

As Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) opines, "The quickest route toward a national health care program will be when individual states go forward and demonstrate that universal and non-profit health care works, and that it is the cost-effective and moral thing to do.”

Oh I know this is hard to swallow. Obama is third-way! He's dismantling the safetynet! A corporatist! He killed the public option!

Whatever else he is, Obama is a President who acts in a thoughtful, deliberate way that the chicken little headlines of the day often miss. As many predicted, ACA is already leading to the kind of transformative progressive change Obama promised. The progressive movement will be responsible for showing the nation how well single-payer works after the Vermont system goes into effect. When public and non-profit insurance becomes the national norm, we'll know where it began.