The False Lure of the Sanders Single-Payer Plan

[JDPriestly]

43. The only way it can cost more is that it will insure more people.

Single payer is inherently cheaper in terms of the bureaucracy it reduces, the paperwork it eliminates and the negotiating power it brings.

More people will be insured. That is the only reason that single payer would be more expensive than for-profit health insurance.

There is nothing inherent in single-payer that makes it more expensive than for-profit insurance. To the contrary. Single payer streamlines a lot of the paperwork, the billing and the collection of bills (a big deal for medical billers and doctors) among other things. In Europe, dental care, vision care, etc. are covered by the single payer insurance plans. Not so here in many cases.

The problem in the US that is ignored and not discussed is the fact that even with Obamacare, many Americans have no health insurance coverage. And many of the uninsured Americans have big health problems like addiction, diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, malnutrition, alcoholism, etc. If we insure everybody, it may cost more in that sense. But we are getting more value for our insurance dollar.

And that is what single payer will give us -- more value for our insurance dollars. That is my experience and that is why I support single payer insurance.

And collecting bills that patients cannot afford including co-payments for necessary hospital care is a big problem in our system now, a problem that critics of single-payer insurance ignore.