Since the government is financing the system, single-payer health care would eliminate the need for the ten of thousands of private insurance companies and HMOs. This also eliminates the huge administrative costs resulting from this current complex system. This saved money can be used to provide care and insurance to those who currently do not have it.

 

A single-payer system benefits patients because it grants everyone access to all health care services, based on need and not on ability to pay. According to Physicians for a National Health Program, “90 to 95 percent of people would pay less overall for health care.”

 

Employers would also gain from a single-payer system because they would no longer bear the primary responsibility of providing their employees with health care benefits.

 

The only losers of single-payer health care are the private insurance companies and HMOs, who become the obsolete middlemen in the whole process. However, it is likely that these “for-profit” private health care agencies, which are also some of the largest political campaign contributors, are the reason why single-payer health care has been kept out of the reform debates in Washington. 

 

Doctors would not be greatly affected in the single-payer system. Their incomes would change little, but they would have three options for payment: fee-for-service, salaried positions in hospitals, and salaried positions within group practices. Clinical decisions would no longer be dictated by insurance company policy, as doctors would not have to worry whether patients can pay for their treatments.

 

The Universal National Health Insurance Act is sponsored in the House of Representatives by Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan) and co-sponsored by 93 other members of the House.

 

Put Single-Payer on the Table (By Amy Goodman, TruthDig)

What is Single Payer? (Physicians for a National Health Program)

Department of Health and Human Services (AllGov)