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)Look at the list of other countries in the world. They economize and take care of all who want medical care. We don't. We don't achieve with our system of medical insurance what they achieve with theirs.
And by the way, some of those countries have private insurance that can be purchased and buys extras like a private room in the hospital. So people can have their basic care paid for out of their paycheck as a percentage for the single payer insurance and still have choice if they want additional benefits.
Single payer is not a restraining mechanism. It frees a society from all these crazy fundraisers to pay for Dorothy's cancer surgery. Our system is utterly insane compared to single payer.
But even with single payer, the states would have to impose standards for medical personnel, etc. just as they do now. We have great doctors and nurses. We would be able to keep them, maybe improve standards slightly. I have heard from a European nurse working in an emergency room in our country that the nurse practitioners in Europe do much of the routine work there, some of which is still done by doctors here. There would be lots of ways to make our medical care more efficient and less costly and also insure that we have enough well trained doctors. Single payer makes it possible to organize medical care in a better way. It puts doctors, practicing doctors, rather than insurance executives and insurance company doctors in charge of the patient.