Single Payer Health Care System
What is Single Payer Health Care?
Single payer—or Medicare for All—is simply a streamlined financing mechanism where one entity administers the health care funding and payments. It expands the cost-effective and administratively efficient Medicare program to cover everyone in the United States. Health care delivery (such as hospitals and doctors) remains private and patients are guaranteed choice of care from providers.
| Myths | Facts |
|---|---|
| Single Payer health care would create a government-run health care system or “socialized medicine.” | Single payer creates a national insurance system by collecting and administering funds through a single public agency. Hospitals and doctors remain private providers but get reimbursed directly from this public system. |
| Greater government involvement in health care would lead to rationing—with a bureaucrat making your health care decisions. | Currently, most private insurance companies restrict your choice and ration your care. With a single payer system, patients have a choice of provider, decisions are made between provider and patient, and the provider is assured fair and prompt payment. |
| Moving toward a single payer health care system would disrupt patient care. | Extending Medicare insurance to the entire population would be relatively simple because the system is already established and nearly all providers are existing Medicare providers. |
Additional Information
Quote of the Day—Written by Physicians for a National Health Program’s Senior Health Policy Fellow Don McCanne, MD, Quote of the Day is a subscription health policy update, taking an excerpt or quote from a health care news story or analysis on the Internet and commenting on its significance to the single-payer health care reform movement. To subscribe to Dr. McCanne’s daily updates, visit two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/quote-of-the-day.
Respite Care Providers’ Network 
National Consumer Advisory Board 
Clinicians’ Network 
