There’s irony in here somewhere.

(Politico) – With Vermont moving toward a single-payer health-care plan today, the single-payer advocacy groups whose voices went mostly unheard in the health care fight are launching a move to press the Department of Health and Human Services to grant the state key Medicare and Medicaid waivers.

Physicians for a National Health Program and the blog Firedoglake are launching a petition to Secretary Kathleen Sebelius that calls the Vermont plan “an important model for our nation.

“The people of Vermont, including the state’s doctors, nurses and other health professionals, have inspired the entire nation by their unflagging dedication to winning a publicly financed, comprehensive and equitable health care system based on the principle that health care is a human right,” said the physicians’ group’s president, Dr. Garrett Adams.