General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Bernie Sanders talks universal Medicare, and 1.1 million people click to watch him [View all]Sophia4
(3,515 posts)It is less expensive to administer a larger program because you need fewer CEOs who get paid the big bucks, and you also need fewer copies of the most expensive equipment. It's more expensive of course if EVERYONE has medical care. And it's providing medical care to everyone -- that's what we don't do and they do.
But if you actually do a little research into the percentage of GDP paid for medical care in the countries that have single payer and in our country that does not have it, you will discover that in terms of GDP single payer costs less and that the overall health including longevity, that is life expectancy and infant mortality in countries with single payer is better than ours with our system.
So based on the statistics from other countries that have single payer, it is cheaper than our system and provides better outcomes.
66 million people is larger than California which has 39 million. California, Oregon and Washington State might join together and have a program.
But then, on the other hand, there are countries in Europe, like Austria with between 8 and 9 million that manage smaller systems quite well.
So the size of the country is not that important although you need a pool of members in the insurance system that spreads the risk so that a person with an expensive medical problem is paid for by the money from the many people with almost no problem.
If our medical outcomes matched those in the countries with single payer, and if everyone in the US could afford our health insurance, I wouldl not bother to advocate for single payer.
But we are shooting ourselves in the foot with our health insurance system. We are making shareholders in insurance companies very comfortable every time we become physically uncomfortable. I'd rather spend the money that they make in profit from my misery on things that would make my life better. I think it is great if capitalists make a profit from selling wonderful new cars or clothes or something like that. But making money off some poor victim of cancer????? How sick can you get?????
Let's have a system that minimizes the profit of the investors and maximizes access to healthcare. That's single payer, not what we have now.