Single Payer Healthcare
Single Payer Healthcare is a system in which all medical treatments and health care coverage are paid for by a single organization. In most cases, this single organization is a federal government. A single payer healthcare system does not, however, speak to who receives this treatment. Universal healthcare is a system in which every individual receives health care coverage. These two systems go hand in hand as Universal healthcare is not possible without a single payer health care system in place. Under a single payer healthcare, most services rendered come from private facilities rather than government-led facilities.
What is Single Payer Healthcare?
The idea behind single-payer health care is that every citizen would receive all medical services such as hospital care, doctor visits, preventative care, mental health services, dental, vision, prescription drug, reproductive health care and medical supply costs without the expense of these services coming directly from their pocket. That they would be paid for by a single payer or for lack of better words, the federal government. The idea is that patients would have a free choice who their doctor would be as well as doctors having autonomy of their patient’s care.
Of course, in an ideal world, this seems like an excellent program. In fact, you’ll find many people who can only speak of how great this program would be. They claim that this type of system costs less because there is no competition in this not for profit structure and an enormous amount of money is not wasted on administrative expenses. There is minimal paperwork for health care workers to do allowing them to focus more on the patient. And this system cuts out insurance companies which allow people to deal directly with their doctors instead of a third party to help pay for the services rendered. The also say that similar to the VA; we would see a decrease in prescription drug costs because the government would be a single buyer allowing them to purchase in bulk, getting a reduced price. Many would disagree with these statements as well. To find out more about their stance, see our next blog post.
