Colin Powell Endorses Single-Payer Health Care

By Steven Nelson Dec. 10, 2013 | 2:46 p.m. EST

At a prostate cancer survivors breakfast last week, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a Republican, marveled at the quality of single-payer health care systems abroad and suggested the U.S. follow suit.

~Snip~

"I don't see why we can't do what Europe is doing, what Canada is doing, what Korea is doing, what all these other places are doing," Powell said at the Dec. 5 event. "I am not an expert in health care, or Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act, or however you choose to describe it, but I do know this: I have benefited from that kind of universal health care in my 55 years of public life."

The retired four-star general pointed to his military health insurance as an example of high-quality government insurance and shared an anecdote regarding his firewood supplier -- a woman named Anne -- who sought help paying for an MRI scan not covered by her private insurance policy.

"Every country I've visited, every developed country, they have universal health care ... I think universal health care is one of the things we should really be focused on," Powell said. "Whether it's Obamacare, or son of Obamacare, I don't care. As long as we get it done."

Powell's remarks were reported Monday by ABC News, which cited a report in the Puget Sound Business Journal.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/12/10/colin-powell-endorses-single-payer-health-care