[Arles]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

Worse coverage? Wha? Every single payer program I've seen has far better coverage than American private insurance. Why do you think this groundswell for Medicare for All has been coming from? People in other countries are flabbergasted by the level of our cost sharing (mainly deductible amounts, which don't really exist in single payer systems - have you considered those costs in your analysis?).

I'm not entirely sure why you come to the conclusion that single payer health system is just going to be like the employer sponsored health system but with the government instead of insurance companies.

But it's not apples to apples with a country that has 10% of your population (Canada). There is no magic bullet to decrease costs when you have a massive population of unhealthy people who eat fast food everyday and expect a high level of service. It's just whether you prefer that employers subsidize it or individual shoulder all the costs themselves via taxes.

People will of course be paying more, but with better health coverage and more equitable health care coverage. And the country will be paying less overall as overhead costs decreases substantially, and the government can negotiate services as a whole.

Again, you are handing most workers a $4-$7K bill each year for a lower level of coverage with the "hope" of costs to eventually decrease.

Not to mention that a lot of times private insurance freezes you to your job (which creates a massive inefficiency to the job market).

70% of private employers offer subsidized health care. I don't think a person at a company stays there because all the similar jobs out there don't have private health insurance.

Originally Posted by JPhillips

The idea that health insurance costs would double and coverage would be significantly worse is nuts. It's roughly similar to arguing that healthcare under Bernie would be literally free.

The costs to the employee would double, there is a distinction there. Currently, the employer pays between 50 and 70% of the cost of the health care plan. If that goes away, the employee is faced with 100% of the cost (either through taxes or premiums).

Originally Posted by JPhillips

We pay significantly more for drugs, hospital visits, procedures. surgeries, etc. How does that have anything to do with population size?

It's a factor - more people mean more sick people and more diverse set of serious illnesses. We also have one of the worst lifestyles when it comes to health. So more people living a worse lifestyle = higher cost. We also foot the bill for a big chunk of research and innovation. Finally, we have a higher expectation of service than most Canadian and European counterparts. We wait maybe 2-3 weeks for most surgeries - those waits in Canada or the UK are closer to 12 weeks and 20 weeks in places like Norway and Finland.