Is Single Payer Right For America? | Intellections

Many people support a single payer health care system because they believe it would cover more people at a lower cost. But it is important to consider the trade offs to care, access, and wait times that come with single payer. Expanding coverage to more people is expensive, and high costs mean the government has no choice but to reduce access to certain drugs, procedures, and doctors.

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How much would single payer cost in the United States? Three think tanks say trillions more than many supporters believe.

[FhtagnCthulhu]

Asking a question and then presenting a single side with no citations or counterpoints makes for really transparent propaganda. Nothing presented here has any substantive explanation behind it, and it just becomes easy to ignore the entire thing.

Not that single payer systems are free from flaws, but there are definitely pros and cons and there is no way to talk about the issue in a responsible and measured way in 86 seconds.

[tannerheaps]

in 2008 harvard did a study and found that 45000 people die a year in the united states due to lack of health care thats on average 123 lives lost a day on average

[bennimkin]

Your video is misleading. The cost of many drugs and procedures is already cost prohibitive to millions of Americans (and are often not covered by insurance). Basic healthcare coverage in a single payer system would drastically reduce cost, wait times, and administrative headaches. This is just Health Insurance Lobbying to protect their flawed industry - which I understand, I'd want to keep my job too, but not at the detriment to millions of American's lives.

[Teebs]

Um, as someone who knows people in Canada that have this system and brag about it all the time at my university... They claimed that care was received immediately and only voluntary procedures were usually on a long wait due to more important surgeries being put ahead of them. There also the fact that we dont have unlimited organs to donate so whether a single-payer or a private it will still have waiting times.

As a french citizen living in the US, sure the hospitals may have slightly better equipment, but literally no one can afford them without going bankrupt. The same can be said about universities in which students rack up huge debt...

[han]

Wait what? I'm from the UK and I've never had to wait long for urgent care and have always received the medicine I needed in time. I'm extremely thankful for the NHS since I've never had to worry about whether I could afford to see my GP and have had several serious problems diagnosed and treated quickly when, if I lived in the US, I would've been forced to ignore them due to my low income at the time. It continues to baffle me that anyone would actively fight against having a similar system, especially if they're struggling financially or have long term, costly health issues.

[Nindo]

We already have waiting lines! Instead of prioritizing based on need, like the UK does, the US prioritizes based on wallet size.

[Jmlatmr]

We can base our experience on nations like the UK and Sweden? Where it works great? Good, glad we had this talk. Stop wasting my time.

[tannerheaps]

we have waiting lines here un the usa only its based on the sise of your wallet

[biomerl]

This choice "we enjoy' isn't enjoyed by the vast majority of the nation.

[tylerbradshaw]

Better health outcomes in the US? Please show me what data you cherry picked from.

[SoapyFae]

I liked your free speech psas, but please stop paying to put this propaganda n my eyes when i'm trying to watch British youtubers play video games.

[zachreddish]

My cousin died from cancer, not because the treatment was unavailable but simply because he couldn't afford it. How can we claim to be the "Greatest country in the world." when our citizens die because of a lack of funds?

[naveensilva]

Jeezus, there are pros and cons to both healthcare models, but this is just blatantly lying to people, its really sad actually...

[IrnFrog]

If you can't adequately explain an idea and propose a solution in the amount of time you allocate for a video, you need to make a different video.
1. "To expand coverage to more people the government has no choice but to limit access to certain drugs, procedures, and doctors that we now enjoy" [ *citation needed* ]
2. "Wait time for diagnostic procedures, doctor appointments, chemotherapy,  and surgery are so long that their governments have turned to private care, sometimes even private care in other countries." [ *citation needed* ]
3. "Because of the long wait time to receive treatment and restricted access to specialists, medications, and medical technology health outcomes in single payer systems are worse than in the US for almost all serious diseases"
4. Isn't Scott Atlas a medical doctor? Would you mind telling me what makes him qualified to prescribe treatment for what is, at its core an economic issue? I'm not saying he's bad, I'm just saying I wouldn't go to a doctor to get my credit score checked.

To be clear, I'm also not saying a single-payer system is right, I'm just saying whatever you are trying to accomplish through this video isn't working because at best it sounds like a warped version of reality and at worst is intentionally spreading misinformation.
Come back when you have a more compelling case.

[williamwilson]

How many families go bankrupt from medical bills in Sweden? In the U.K.? Is it better to have no medical care or wait six months for it?

I’ve lived in the U.K. with access to National Health. It ain’t perfect and I don’t want it, but what we have isn’t working well either.

There’s a reason why Americans are dying earlier...and general happiness seems out of reach for many.

[MsZeitgeist]

The Likes/Dislikes ratio on this video gives me hope for America.

[ImSimpleGreen]

Why does no one talk about trying to get the costs of healthcare down? Today you cannot go to any hospital for any car and expect to get an honest and transparent quote for how much your care will cost, and it is only after you receive the care when you know how much it will cost you. My proposal would be to have the government require hospitals, clinics, and doctors to post the prices for every procedure and then get out of it. If people can shop around for care and go to a less expensive option then these industries must drop prices to better compete. We need to get to a point where the insurance companies aren't raking in the money while the government is subsidizing everything to drive the prices up. For example they started subsidizing secondary education and the prices increased exponentially.

[themoleman]

Get rid of the law forbiding insurence companies from competing across state lines and you'll improve it a lot more than single payer would.

[stephenkramer]

The universe disgust for this propaganda in the comments section warms my heart.

[jasonrevall]

it can take me 2 months to see a doctor in america and i have insurance this is bull