Single Payer Health Care System Essay

Some detractors of a single payer health care system immediately point to the burdensome cost which would be placed on the average citizen in order to pay for such a system; however, A single payer health care system would be a manageable cost and would save most Americans money. One single payer critic made the claim that Single payer would be impossible because of the financial hit that it would require the U.S. to take, therefore making the very proposal of a single payer health system a politically toxic proposal that would lead to the souring of the electorate(McArdle n. pag). While Miss McArdle isn’t wrong in the fact that any single payer system would cost a considerable amount of money, she is mistaken in thinking that it would be

With the proposed tax adjustments and the payment plan involving both the individual and employer, Senator Sanders’ health care plan becomes not only viable but also cheap when held against most Americans insurance deductibles. Compared with most so called first world countries, the United States as a whole spends far more on healthcare; “At 17.4% of GDP in 2009, US health spending is half as much again as any other country, and nearly twice the average”(OECD 1). OECD stands for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which includes such countries as Britain, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands among others. The fact that the U.S. spends comparatively more than these other “socialist” countries displays that having a streamlined, national healthcare system can in fact be run without breaking the bank or creating unmanageable costs.

Single payer healthcare would improve the ease with which people receive competent healthcare. A single payer healthcare system with a streamlined means of receiving and paying for medical care would save valuable time and money as compared to our current healthcare system, which is bogged down in a morass of complex and varying insurance