There’s a lot of discussion about the differences between single-payer healthcare and our current system with the Affordable Care Act. I don’t advocate for “scrapping” the ACA. Rather, I believe we should use it as the baseline for moving to a single-payer system.
Robert Reich made a very good point recently, noting how that transition from ACA to single-payer might work:
“A single-payer plan would be offered as an option on state insurance exchanges (similar to the ‘public option’ idea that was briefly considered but then rejected by the designers of Obamacare). Assuming that the single-payer plan’s premiums, co-payments, and deductibles would be lower than those of private for-profit insurance, and its benefits higher – a reasonable assumption in that the single-payer plan wouldn’t be paying for advertising, marketing, billing, and distributions to shareholders – it would become a steadily more popular option. But no one would be forced to take it. Private for-profit insurance plans would offer the best deals they could. The structure of Obamacare would be maintained -- unless or until so many Americans opted for the single-payer plan that the private for-profits decided to discontinue their own.”
Whatever you may think, look at the comparisons and the details before you dig in with your opinion. This is a crucial debate in our country going forward. Tens of millions of people are still uninsured because they can’t afford insurance even with the ACA, and millions more are under-insured because the cost of premiums and deductibles are so prohibitive.