Will the United States Ever Adopt a Single-Payor Health Care System?

[Frodo]

Some say it will never happen; others that it is inevitable -especially if the Supreme Court either overturns the entire law, or effectively guts it by getting rid of the individual mandate and letting Congress do the rest.

What do you think?  Do you think you will see the United States adopt a single-payor health care system in your lifetime?  

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

It probably doesn't help that the Democrats passed something with the words healthcare reform in it mainly to try to avoid another 1994, and 2010 wasn't another 1994, after all, 63 House seats weren't lost in 1994. Well, the Democrats showed us how not to do healthcare reform.

[BaldEagle1991]

They will....eventually.

[Redalgo]

Highly probable? Yes. Inevitable? Absolutely not. xD

[Californian Tony]

Some day ? Probably.

Anytime in the next couple decades ? Highly doubt it.

[greenforest32]

I think the Supreme Court striking down the mandate would make single-payer more likely but even then I have a hard time seeing it adopted any time this decade or the next.

Assuming no mandate, it will probably be a continuous decline in employer-sponsored coverage and an uptick in Medicaid/uninsured before we hear any talk of merging Medicaid/Medicare and other government employee plans into a single national system.

If they uphold the mandate, I don't know. It depends on what is done regarding the existing and increasing costs.

[The CINC]

I don't think the USA will ever adopt a single-payer health care system in our lifetime for the following reasons (1) lack of cost control (2) fear of "big government" controlling 14% of our GDP which we spend on health care.

However, we can have universal health insurance in our lifetime through a system of universal health vouchers under the Guaranteed Healthcare Access Plan (GHAP). Under the GHAP, all legal residents recieve a healthcare certificate entitling them to a set of medical and dental benefits. They will use the certificates to enroll in a health care plan offered by an insurance company who will have to accept all those who wish to enroll regardless of preexisting medical condition. The whole system will be financed by a national consumptiont tax.

This will enable us to phase out Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, and the employer-based health care system in general.

[© Tweed the Younger]

have to.  but they will call it something else.

[opebo]

No, I don't think it will. 

[white trash heroes]

what is a single payor system?

[Hatman]

Not before the deluge. After wards, who knows... depending on what happens.

[So rightwing that I broke the Political Compass!]

If the present "order" remains in place for the next few decades, I can't see it not happening. But I think the present order will be overthrown by a technological revolution that will A)reduce serious health expenses(thanks to treatments that reverse deterioration associated with aging, cancer, clogged arteries and so on) and B)cause a surge in personalized vanity healthcare expenditure. "A" will reduce the need for single payer, "B" will make it harder to justify.

[Ghyl Tarvoke]

"Technological revolutions" as of late have managed to increase health-care costs, not the reverse.

What Tweed said, I think, is essentially correct.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

what is a single payor system?

Usually one says single-payer, but single-payor is correct, too.

[Darius_Addicus_Gaius]

not if I'm alive

[opebo]

not if I'm alive

Are you threatening terrorism or suicide?  It isn't clear.

[© Tweed the Younger]

not if I'm alive

Are you threatening terrorism or suicide?  It isn't clear.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_attack