Single payer
Single Payer refers to a health care system having only one payer of all health care expenses, typically a socialistic big government Welfare state - Nanny state. That payer would rely on tax revenues and perhaps some insurance premiums to fund its reimbursements and costs.
Currently the federal government accounts for 43% of all health care expenditures, and a series of recent mergers among health insurance companies leaves only three major insurers.[1] It appears that health care is approaching a single payer system, or something close to it.
Switzerland, which has mandatory health insurance, rejected a proposal to adopt a single payer system on March 11, 2007.[2] 71% of voters opposed it. Switzerland currently has 87 different private health plans.
At the first 2016 presidential debate, Donald Trump declared the following:[3]
“ | As far as single payer, it works in Canada. It works incredibly well in Scotland. It could have worked in a different age, which is the age you're talking about here. | ” |
To which Rand Paul responded:
“ | the Republican Party's been fighting against a single-payer system ... for a decade. So I think you're on the wrong side of this if you're still arguing for a single-payer system. | ” |
David Hogberg wrote:
- A single-payer health care system is one in which a single-entity—the government—collects almost all of the revenue for and pays almost all of the bills for the health care system. In most single-payer systems only a small percentage of health care expenses are paid for with private funds. Countries that have a single-payer system include Australia, Canada, Sweden and the United Kingdom.[4]
Single-payer is popular among the political left in the United States.
See also
References
- ↑ http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865637201/Government-single-payer-health-coverage-may-be-nation7s-future.html?pg=all
- ↑ http://www.businessinsurance.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?newsId=9723
- ↑ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/transcript-of-the-2015-gop-debate-9-pm/
- ↑ The Myths of Single-Payer Health Care - David Hogberg