I Already Have a 'Single Payer' System

The fanatical opposition to health care reform is the latest in a long line of weird behavior that fascinates me.

I am not espousing any health care plan over or any reform over any other. As with the financial debacle, I'm too ignorant of all the facts and of all the possible repercussions to have a solid idea I'd prefer. But I can not understand the knee-jerk, raving opposition to a single-payer system.

For one thing, it seems to work quite well in other places. Better than our current (lack of) system. Other western countries seem to be consistently rated higher than us in quality of care, and in cost.

Plus Medicare and the VA system seem to do okay. The argument that those government plans are in financial trouble doesn't carry much weight with me. It's true, but they also are run on a fraction of insurance companies' budgets.

The argument that they are wasteful is fairly ridiculous. If I make $50,000 a year and you earn only $20,000 a year, does the fact that I have $2,000 left at the end of the year and you are broke mean that you are 'wasteful'?

I'm sure there is plenty of waste in government programs. But I'm convinced they are no more wasteful than the average business.

Finally, I and most insured Americans already have a single-payer system. The payer is our employer, and we use whatever insurance company they decide to use, and pay whatever premiums and out-of-pocket expenses they decide we need to pay. And go to whatever doctors and hospitals are in their system, and get whatever treatment they say is reimbursable.

I am a long way from confident that our government could run this thing well. But when it comes to making sure I have quality health care available at a price that won't bankrupt me, I would not trust the government any less than I trust my profit-driven employer and their profit-driven insurance provider.

Of course, none of this matters because it almost certainly isn't going to happen.