By Daniel Barlow, Vermont Press Bureau

MONTPELIER - Holding signs declaring that health care is a human right, hundreds of Vermonters rallied outside of the Statehouse Friday afternoon in what quickly became the Woodstock of health care reform demonstrations.

Live folk music, elaborate costumes, political skits and a dunking booth for faux insurance company lobbyists were among the attractions at the Health Care is a Human Right rally as activists and politicians attempted to build a grassroots movement for reform.

An estimated 600 people swarmed over the Statehouse steps and lawn for the event, although the number fell short of the 1,000 people organizers expected for what was billed as the largest health care rally in the history of Vermont.

"You look good from up here," said U.S. Sen. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., as he stood at the podium on the Statehouse steps to a roar of approval from the crowd. "You are part of a struggle to transform the basic values of the United States of America."

Sanders was greeted with rock star enthusiasm as he told the crowd that he sponsored a new bill creating a national single-payer universal health-care system - the first time such a bill has been introduced in the U.S. Senate since the death of Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone in 2002.

"You are saying loud and clear that health care is a human right for all people, not just the privileged or those who have a lot of money," Sanders said.

The protest comes at an unusual time at the Statehouse. Strapped for cash in the poor economy, lawmakers have been more focused on finding ways to cut the state budget than make major health care reforms.

Several lawmakers who support a single-payer health-care system said they expect the new administration of President Obama to enact reforms down the line and Vermont is poised to benefit from an influx of federal money to test out new models.

That relief can't come soon enough for people like Cindy Habiland of Wells. A nursing assistant, Habiland said she was forced to go without health insurance for more than year until a cancer scare convinced her to sign onto Catamount Health.

But that program requires most people to wait a year before coverage begins. She said she couldn't afford the hundreds of dollars a month that health insurance would cost her on the private market.

"I have lots of friends who have seen their health insurance plans downgraded," Habiland said. "And they are downgraded to a point where they only cover catastrophic care, which essentially means you don't have health insurance unless you're on your death bed."

There were some unexpected guests at Friday's rally. Opponents of abortion and physician-assisted suicide appeared at the rally and some minor scuffles and disagreements broke out as universal health care advocates tried to block their signs.

Felix Callan of Waterbury Center, a retired Montpelier physician, and his friend, Roland Pepin of Montpelier, stood at the top of the Statehouse steps with their anti-abortion sign when a teenager supporting universal health care stuck his sign in front of their sign.

Both men said the aggressive tactics used to block out their message was uncalled for, especially since the Statehouse is know throughout Vermont as "the people's house."

"I don't object to anything they are saying," Callan said, who added that he doesn't want tax dollars to pay for abortions. "But we have every right to be here too."