Can I have a layman's first grader explanation of 'single payer' healthcare please?

I'm kinda a derp when it comes to getting some things and I just can't 'get' what single payer healthcare is or why it's preferred. If someone could explain it like I'm 10 years old, I'd appreciate it. I'm in the USA if that helps. I don't know if it'd be the same idea from other Countries, but hey, the more knowledge, the better.

What is Obamacare considered as it's obviously not 'single payer'?

Thanks SO much everyone.

a reply to: sarra1833

no such animal as "single payer" in reality.

all taxpayers become the payers.



The issue would be an example of MediCare for everybody.

Cost in tax withholding is the question.

Somebody needs to run the actual numbers.

a reply to: sarra1833

Single-payer health care is a system in which the government, rather than private insurers, pays for all health care costs.

In some places, all private care is outlawed and in others there are boutique systems allowed that only the very wealthy can afford - much like the public school system and private schools in the US - and with some similar results and efficiency.

The single payer could possibly be a private company operating under 'strict government rules'.
If an insurance company ponied up enough money to the party in power, they could be that entity.

originally posted by: Elton
a reply to: sarra1833

Single-payer health care is a system in which the government, rather than private insurers, pays for all health care costs.

but the "government" is just the middle man so to speak.

all taxpayers are the collective payer.

prices vary on income.

Google "Every industrialized western nation other than the US" and you'll find your answers sans the propaganda.

a reply to: butcherguy

Or more than one ... after all, those peasants are so stubbornly addicted to their "choice" ...

a reply to: Hefficide

You might want to also Google relative survival rates for things like cancer and other diseases too.

How about we give it to you in binary like an infant.

a reply to: Elton

Point being....my tax dollars paying for other people's coverage like I'm already doing with Medicare and Medicade only this time it would be everyone.

Now I think this is something I can handle.

Your tax dollars pays for other peoples.

There tax dollars pays for yours!

a reply to: ketsuko

Done that long ago - but let's avoid the small fish and go for the white whale... life expectancies.

You'll notice that the US is #33

How about quality of that life? - there we do a bit better at #17.

And you'll notice that some of those pesky countries with socialized medicine ( and school, and free internet, and so on ) also have a higher GDP than the US.

Oh and we also lose to them in infant mortality rates.

It means a decent health care system. Its not single payer across the provinces in Canada. Some provinces, at least a few decades ago and I haven't kept up, because its not mine, don't charge premiums. Its covered. You are issued your health care card and go to the doctor, the clinic, the hospital, etc for free mostly. If low income, medicine can be mostly or totally covered as well, but not all is available and you have to make sure you get the standard types. If you live in a province that pays, ie a typical family will be over 130 dollars a month. But can send in a tax return each year if you have non existent income and its covered. Though not always the medicine.

Mostly not a worry for people.

originally posted by: Hefficide
a reply to: ketsuko

Done that long ago - but let's avoid the small fish and go for the white whale... life expectancies.

You'll notice that the US is #33

How about quality of that life? - there we do a bit better at #17.

And you'll notice that some of those pesky countries with socialized medicine ( and school, and free internet, and so on ) also have a higher GDP than the US.

Oh and we also lose to them in infant mortality rates.

Socialist propaganda. To even suggest that countries that have socialist programs like healthcare are better than America's if you can't afford it then you're screwed healthcare system is ridiculous.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: Hefficide

You might want to also Google relative survival rates for things like cancer and other diseases too.

The top five nations when it comes to surviving cancer is the US, Australia, Canada, France and Japan. Guess which one don't have some form of universal healthcare? The US leads the way when it comes to breast cancer at 83.9% and prostate cancer at 91.9% survival rate but we fall behind in other areas when it comes to different cancers.
Japan came out best for male colon and rectal cancers, at 63% and 58.2% respectively, while France fared best for women with those cancers at 60.1% and 63.9%.

Huge gap in world cancer survival
Seeing how America pays the most when it comes to healthcare we should be leading in all those areas.

a reply to: sarra1833

Single payer is where healthcare is considered a right. You don't have a choice in coverage. You get what you get. (And don't throw a fit!)

What we have now (or used to have) healthcare is considered a service, a commodity, something to be purchased (or not) at the whim of the individual.

originally posted by: buster2010

originally posted by: Hefficide
a reply to: ketsuko

Done that long ago - but let's avoid the small fish and go for the white whale... life expectancies.

You'll notice that the US is #33

How about quality of that life? - there we do a bit better at #17.

And you'll notice that some of those pesky countries with socialized medicine ( and school, and free internet, and so on ) also have a higher GDP than the US.

Oh and we also lose to them in infant mortality rates.

Socialist propaganda. To even suggest that countries that have socialist programs like healthcare are better than America's if you can't afford it then you're screwed healthcare system is ridiculous.

You do realize that the infant mortality stats are skewed by the fact that in the US we count any birth where the child draws a breath as a live birth where in other countries the child must survive for sometimes as long as a year before they are counted?

Has anybody run the numbers for "single-payer" here in the U.S. ?

They take 1.45% from earnings matched by 1.45% from employers (and self employed) = 2.90% for Medicare.

What would it take to cover "everybody" ?

You don't really know what the quality of US healthcare because other countries don't poison their citizens with GMOs and floride tainted water.