Bernie Sanders wants Single Payer Healthcare for all.  Do you?

Obamacare definitely expanded health coverage in America. It is estimated through this program over 16 million more people now have health insurance. Employer sponsored coverage also grew by approximately 8 million people and the law expanded coverage to more Americans using all parts of the health insurance system. Obamacare did expand health coverage but it also changed the visible features of health care in America by:

* Making sure more Americans are insured.

* Gaining health coverage for Americans who didn’t have it previously.

* Expanded the coverage for Medicaid.

* Exposed more health issues with increased coverage’s.

* Created more insured patients but not more doctors.

Health insurance coverage is being looked at again as a top priority for most politicians. Many disagree with Obamacare and plan to remove it if elected and some are offering new ideas to implement if elected. One idea is the single payer health care.

Single Payer Health Care

Another name for single payer health care is, “Medicare for all”. This would entail a single public agency organizing the finances for health care but leaving the delivery of health care mostly in private hands. Everyone in the United States will have health insurance for all medically necessary services. This will include:

Doctor

Hospital

Preventive

Long term care

Mental health

Reproductive health care

Dental

Vision

Prescription drug

Medical supply costs

How to pay for Single Payer Health Care

Under this proposed plan funding is designed to come from replacing current inefficient, profit and multiple insurance payers with single streamlined nonprofit public payers. New taxes will also be added to cover some of the expenses. It will eliminate insurance premiums and over 90% of the households would save money.

No Co-pays or Deductibles

Co-pays and deductibles would be gone dissembling the financial barriers to care many face now and free choice of hospital and doctor care would be allowed.

Single Payer Health Care could save the US a lot of money

There are countries that have successfully implemented this type of health care and have actually realized huge savings. How this increases savings:

Access to prevention.

Everyone will have access to primary care thus reducing how many people get sick.

Intervene early.

Giving everyone a source of health care, makes illnesses and injury become less serious or expensive to treat.

Reduce overhead.

With a single payer plan there will be no need to advertise which will reduce a large amount of overhead private insurers now pay.

Reduced provider overhead.

There will be no need for billing departments as all claims will be sent to one payer. No more need for the numerous and different forms the insurance companies use today.

Bulk purchasing power.

Prescription costs will come down when payers can bargain for the best possible prices and not allow middle-men to overcharge patients.

Another alternative health care system being considered is the Universal Health Care System.

Universal Health Care System

Universal health care coverage is designed to make sure all people have health services without suffering financially when having to pay for it. There are many factors that need to be in place in order to ensure the system will succeed:

A strong, well-run, efficient health system. A system that will meet priority health needs through integrated care by:

- Educating and advising people on how to stay healthy.

- Diagnosing conditions early.

- Being able to handle and treat diseases.

- Implementing rehabilitation process.

The population’s health is going to be impacted by universal health care. People are going to be more active and productive to their families and communities. It will see more children attending school and also reduce poverty caused when people have to pay high insurance premiums or health care costs out of their own pocket. The universal health care system reduces poverty and social inequities.

Outbreaks such as the recent Ebola epidemic could be avoided with a universal health care system in place. A coalition of leading health and development organizations across the globe are urging governments to speed up reforms so that everyone, everywhere can access quality health care. This form of health care coverage would reduce poverty as there would be no premiums expected as in many health care plans.

Health Care Plans

The Affordable Care Act created comprehensive health insurance plans that were intended to improve access to health care, make them more affordable and provide quality health services to everyone. During the open enrollment time people have the choice of different health care plans and their premiums are determined by their income, amount of coverage they want, deductible amount they choose and the company they choose. There are over 1,300 plans available from over 180 different carriers. The top four choices are:

Health Partners

Medica

BlueCross & BlueShield

Preferred One

When shopping for the coverage and the company that will best fit your financial needs, the single payer system looks much more attractive.

Single Payer System

The single payer system is a “single payer” fund under a universal health care system. The money for health care services comes from a fund rather than from a private insurer. This means a person does not have an insurance premium for health care coverage’s. This system refers to how insurance costs are funded, not delivery of health services. The fund where the money comes from is typically controlled by a government agency as well as overseen by the government.

The single payer system will eliminate private insurance and replace it with one single fund for everyone. It would eliminate the tier of coverage in America where quality care is determined by income. All plans would have the same benefits and there would be no insurance premiums, co-pays or deductibles. We have several single payer systems in place in the United States; Medicaid, Medicare, Veterans Affairs, Military and federal and state employees all use single payer systems.

Medicare offers basic coverage as public insurance through parts A and part B and supplement insurance is offered through a private insurance company to cover costs that Medicare doesn’t.

Veterans Affairs and Military use a single fund to cover medical costs for those who have served in the armed services for the United States.

The big question is will the single payer system work for all Americans. We have some of these plans in place and they do work well; however will it work as well for the country as a whole?

There is a lot to discuss and figure out before we can say single payer insurance will work for the United States as a whole. While we know Medicare and Medicaid are successful, do we know they are more successful than private health coverage? There are many countries that have installed the single payer system and have seen good results. Some of those are; Canada, Australia and the UK. Perhaps now is the time for the United States to get on-board and implement one for all Americans.