St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editorial: If U.S. is serious about debt, there's a single-payer solution

[Better Believe It]

Editorial: If U.S. is serious about debt, there's a single-payer solution.
By the Editorial Board
STLtoday.com
August 10, 2011

If America truly is serious about dealing with its deficit problems, there's a fairly simple solution. But you're probably not going to like it: Enact a single-payer health care plan.

.... there are two broad ways for the government to address its spiraling health care costs. One, shift more of those costs to recipients, by trimming benefits and/or extending eligibility ages and indexing eligibility to personal income. This is politically unpalatable, particularly to most Democrats, President Barack Obama being a conspicuous exception.

The second way for government to address its health costs is not to shift them, but to reduce them. This is what a single-payer health care system would do, largely by taking the for-profit players (insurance companies for the most part) out of the loop.

Once everyone is covered, the government would have the clout to bring discipline into the wild west of health care spending. It could insist that providers be paid for quality of service, not quantity. Health facilities and equipment could be managed by regional boards. Medical services could be "bundled" — rather than paying hospitals and doctors and laboratories separately, there would be fixed prices for treatments. And so on.

Please read the full editorial at:

http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/editorial/article_97afa329-42f8-5f12-adb0-97fa305c3e4b.html

[vi5]

1. Great article...

Clear and to the point. That should be forwarded to a lot of people.

[Better Believe It]

2. It was written by their editorial board.

[dkf]

3. Finally.

[Gin]

4. good article....

[gratuitous]

5. Wait a tick, what's that about shifting costs to recipients, trimming benefits and the rest?

By JOVE, what a stroke! After all, nobody wants that socialistic health care, what with the longer life spans, lower infant mortality rates, better access to preventive care and such. Death panels!!!

The really dirty little secret behind single payer is that there will indeed be insurers and health care providers eager to provide premium care to the well-heeled. Don't want to wait your turn for an exam? Just pay something extra to a doctor outside the system, and jump to the head of any line! It's always been that way, and for those willing to pay, always will be. The good news is that people currently waiting until something catastrophic happens will get in far sooner to be seen, and head off any number of very expensive illnesses. Early diagnosis and treatment will result in huge savings on health care, as people will no longer wait to be seen because they can't afford a diagnosis.

This is such a no-brainer, it's a wonder that the people with no brains are carrying this debate. I think the terms of the discussion could be changed very quickly with a fierce advocate in a key position of the government. But who?