Vermont passed legislation in 2011 creating Green Mountain Care. When Governor Peter Shumlin signed the bill into law, Vermont became the first state to functionally have a single-payer health care system. While the bill is considered a single-payer bill, private insurers can continue to operate in the state indefinitely, meaning it does not fit the strict definition of single-payer. Representative Mark Larson, the initial sponsor of the bill, has described Green Mountain Care's provisions "as close as we can get [to single-payer] at the state level." Vermont abandoned the plan in 2014, citing costs and tax increases as too high to implement. Washington There have been multiple campaigns for statewide single payer in Washington state. In 2018 a 501(c)(4) called Whole Washington ran an initiative to the people (I-1600) for a statewide single payer plan called the Whole Washington Health Trust - they did not collect enough signatures to make it onto the ballot. Washington has also passed legislation to create a universal healthcare work group that is tasked with creating a statewide universal healthcare plan by 2026. In 2021, Senate Bill 5204, a legislative version of Whole Washington's ballot initiative, was introduced into the state legislature by Senator Bob Hasegawa. It has seven cosponsors, though it has never been introduced into the Washington House of Representatives. Public opinion Advocates for single-payer healthcare point out support in polls, although the polling is mixed depending on how the question is asked. Polls from Harvard University in 1988, the Los Angeles Times in 1990, and the Wall Street Journal in 1991 all showed strong support for a health care system comparable to the system in Canada. A 2001 article in the public health journal Health Affairs studied fifty years of American public opinion of various health care plans and concluded that, while there appears to be general support of a "national health care plan", poll respondents "remain satisfied with their current medical arrangements, do not trust the federal government to do what is right, and do not favor a single-payer type of national health plan." Between 2001 and 2013, however, polling support declined. A 2007 Yahoo/AP poll showed 54% of respondents considered themselves supporters of "single-payer health care", and 49% of respondents in a 2009 poll for Time Magazine showed support for "a national single-payer plan similar to Medicare for all." Polls by Rasmussen Reports in 2011 and 2012 showed 49% opposed