Peter Sterling, a longtime health care reform advocate, is switching roles. Sterling founded Vermont Leads, a 501(c)4 nonprofit dedicated to promoting public funded health care, in June as part of an effort to counter anti-single payer rhetoric.
Now Sterling says he is returning to another advocacy group he formed — the Vermont Campaign for Health Care Security.
In a letter to supporters, he said: “I have made this decision because I feel the need to dedicate my efforts to ensuring that Vermont’s Health Care Exchange is implemented in a way that is fair and equitable to low and middle income Vermonters.”
Sterling most famously organized a protest near Republican activist and funder Lenore Broughton’s house last fall to draw attention to the impact of big money interests on the election. Broughton spent $1 million in Vermont that was funneled through Vermonters First, the state’s first Super PAC. Gov. Peter Shumlin’s single payer health care initiative was one of the targets of a series of broadcast TV attack ads.
Ongoing opposition, Sterling said, comes from groups like the National Federation of Independent Businesses and Vermonters for Health Care Freedom (which has run television ads criticizing the Shumlin administration’s efforts to reform the state’s health care system).
Vermont Leads is funded by the Service Employees International Union. The organization spent $50,000 in the last campaign cycle.
Sterling’s letter to the public follows.
Dear Friend:
I wanted to let you know that beginning today, I will be returning to work full time for the Vermont Campaign for Health Care Security. I have made this decision because I feel the need to dedicate my efforts to ensuring that Vermont’s Health Care Exchange is implemented in a way that is fair and equitable to low and middle income Vermonters.
I will continue my role with Vermont Leads as the Chair of the Board of Directors. In this capacity, I believe I can still have a positive impact on the debate over the need for single payer health care.
I believe Vermont Leads played an important role in advancing the cause of single payer health care through arguably its most susceptible period—the first election cycle after passage of Act 48. Through the work of many, I believe the single payer movement has emerged from this election poised to achieve a first in the nation success of establishing a universal, publicly funded health care system.
I would like to thank the members of SEIU and Matt McDonald for this opportunity to educate the public about the need to create a single payer health care system, one that will hopefully serve as a model for the rest of the nation.
Peter Sterling, Director
Vermont Leads
