According to Wikipedia: A single payer system could save $286 billion a year in overhead and paperwork.⁸⁸ Administrative costs in the U.S. health care system are substantially higher than those in other countries and than in the public sector in the US: one estimate put the total administrative costs at 24 percent of U.S. health care spending.

If you have a pre-existing condition or are over 40, you are trapped in your job due to employer-based health insurance. We know that slavery is not a good way to organize industry. Unhappy workers do not help their employer. Slavery is unconstitutional.

We’re projected to run increasingly huge deficits. Average wages have stayed flat or gone down. Our companies are failing to compete. People are afraid to start new businesses. Why? All because of the rising cost of health care. Only a universal, single-payer system will solve all these crises.

I once asked a congressman to name one successful government program. He sputtered a bit and finally offered “Social Security.” ’Nuf sed.

Individuals must be accountable for their individual health care expenses. Only the will there be an honest eye on the prices charged, and restraint on frivolous expenditures

This balance can only be restored by eliminating ALL the deep pockets from the system. Furthermore, providers must be held harmless from baseless litigation, but liable for damages in cases of neglect or carelessness

The UK system, even with various tweaks by the Conservative and Labour parties, remains inefficient, costly and cash-devouring. For the moment, no one in the UK seriously wants all of the nation’s GDP to be taken by the government. Governments must ration that for which they provide funds, unless they choose to print unlimited amounts of money which creates another set of unintended consequences.

Take health care out of the hands of private corporations.

Other industrialized nations provide quality health care to all their citizens using this method. The US currently SPENDS more per capita than other major industrialized nations that provide universal health care to ALL their citizens. Most Americans agree that the current system needs to be fixed. The solution is simple – adopt the method shown to work instead of trying to fix one that is broken.

Michael McCarthy, MD: “The ability to get health-care insurance is a factor stifling entrepreneurship, which is needed now more than ever. As health care reform is debated, policymakers should ensure that the lack of affordable health care coverage doesn’t lock people into jobs when they otherwise could be striking out on their own in business.”