Any discussion should begin by acknowledging that the USA already has a national health system: Medicare. The program has been an unqualified success as a government-subsidized and -administered health insurance system.
-snip
But two "allies" with national health care plans are worth noting:
* Great Britain guarantees all its citizens coverage, paid for by taxes and delivered by doctors employed by the health care system. According to the World Health Organization, the United Kingdom spends 6% of its economy on health care and ranks 18th out of 191 countries in health system performance. The United States spends 16% of its economy on ours, but we rank 37th, a step ahead of Cuba.
* Canada has a single-payer system that guarantees every Canadian coverage. It's paid for by tax dollars. The government pays all claims, so there is no private insurance industry acting as middleman to administer the system. That's where the big savings come. In Canada, administrative costs are less than 17% of all health spending, compared with 31% in the USA.
-snip
On the Democratic side, only long-shot Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio supports a single-payer system. Many use the term "universal health care," which means that everyone would be covered in some fashion, including through public programs such as Medicare and SCHIP or private insurance plans. John Edwards would require employers to provide coverage or financial assistance, and he would expand public programs such as Medicaid and SCHIP. He also would create regional purchasing pools to make health insurance more affordable. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., calls for a "new national health plan" with guaranteed eligibility and a federal subsidy for those who can't afford to buy into the new plan. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., proposes a universal health care system that would cover all the uninsured, in part by expanding SCHIP, and that would make health insurance more affordable and protect coverage of those with chronic illness.
-snip
There could be drawbacks to a single-payer system, but there are more good reasons to consider just such a system. We need an open, honest discussion of all possibilities without fearing the bogeyman of nationalized health care. With broad popular support for reform, maybe the debate will yield actual change when a new administration moves into the White House.
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/09/whats-wrong-wit.html
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