The 'Public Option' on Health Care Is a Poison Pill

[BeckyDem]

6. From 2017

Single-Payer Reform Purported to Save Estimated $504 Billion

The latest repeal and replace plan from GOP leaders contains various references to limiting Medicaid spending through set state budgets. But Steffie Woolhandler, MD, MPH, and David U. Himmelstein, MD, do not support the GOP plan, citing significant economic and social impacts whether the ACA is kept or repealed. The pair claims that a single payer healthcare can improve patient outcomes with affordable and fiscally sustainable alternatives.

“The ACA has helped millions. However, our healthcare system remains deeply flawed,” write Woolhandler and Himmelstein.

“Reforms that move forward from the ACA are urgently needed and widely supported,” they continue. “Even two fifths of Republicans (and 53% of those favoring repeal of the ACA) would opt for single-payer reform (10). Yet, the current Washington regime seems intent on moving backward, threatening to replace the ACA with something far worse. Polls show that most Americans – including most people who want the ACA repealed, and even a strong minority of Republicans – want single-payer reform. And doctors are crying out for such reform.”

According to their findings, streamlining a single payer system could produce an estimated savings of $220 billion on insurance overhead. Over $150 billion in hospital administration costs can potentially be saved and $75 billion in paperwork costs could be reduced under a single payer program.

https://healthpayerintelligence.com/news/single-payer-reform-purported-to-save-estimated-504-billion