General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Can someone explain (in simple english) what is meant by the "Single Payer" option. [View all]Warpy
(111,414 posts)the insurance funded as pay as you go, either by taxes or premiums.
Medicare is an example of single payer, a very limited plan supplemented by a premium plan (parts A and B).
The reason we push for it is that Medicare has about a 3% overhead while for profit insurance is typically at least ten times that amount.
It also helps providers from doctors to hospitals to free standing labs because there is only one standard paperwork that has to be done when claims are submitted. If you get sick and need medical care, you just show them your number and that's it, you get the care and then go home, no visits to or from bean counters needed, no fights over the phone about something that was arbitrarily denied and no lifetime cap if you get really, really sick.
Insurance companies do provide some of the infrastructure for Medicare, their facilities doing the paperwork and authorizing payment. They will stay in business in this way but they'll no longer be a cash cow, milking the sick and injured for whatever they can get before throwing them off the rolls to crawl off and die.
This is why we all want single payer.