Single payer as an entitlement is inevitable.
The only remaining issues are, will there be a private sector, will the private sector be allowed to sell services “covered” by the government plan, and who will own the hospitals.
Since the shock of 1986, hospitals have evolved into highly sophisticated cash harvesting machines. Nobody - and I mean nobody - is happy with how they have turned out.
I tend to agree with you.
“Since the shock of 1986, hospitals have evolved into highly sophisticated cash harvesting machines. Nobody - and I mean nobody - is happy with how they have turned out.”
Administrative costs in the US are exorbitant relative to the rest of the world - now 25-27 cents of every dollar spent on health care. The increase in administrators in US hospitals has risen by ~3000% over the last few decades - as opposed to a drastically smaller increase in those who actually can and do delivery health care to patients. When you have administrative bloat in any context, it becomes increasingly difficult to control costs.
Physician-run facilities are cheaper than standard hospitals, but physician ownership of health-care facilities/hospitals was banned in 2010 (with some exceptions for existing facilities). This needs to be rescinded.
Singe payer is not inevitable, and most definitely NOT desirable. There are better ways, and we should be focusing on designing a system that is better than all the others, and cost effective concomitantly. It’s absolutely doable.
Thankfully not had anything beyond same day stuff in years, but I fell hard last Aug and the EMT’s insisted on the ER as I’m 70, SHOCK, ER’s are WORSE than ever. It use to be only Public and VA were this bad. I was the ONLY Patient there, treated like dirt. And it was no longer attached to the Hospital upstairs. X Ray Techs were the only competent people there. Even with copies of ins cards they couldn’t bill it right. What is so hard to Bill Medicare/Tricare Life. They actually sent the bill to a Collection Agency.