Single Payer Makes Health Care Affordable for Each Individual

The single payer model does away with a system in which
payment for coverage is based on the value of the benefits provided by
insurance plans. Private health plans no longer work because the premium that
has to be charged for a reasonably comprehensive set of benefits is no longer
affordable for the majority of Americans.

As a prime example, the premium for
the healthiest sector of our society – the healthy workforce and their young
healthy families – now averages over $12,000. Add into the pool those with
greater health care needs and average-income Americans could never pay the
premium. Although the traditional role of health insurance was to establish a
transfer from the many who are healthy to those with greater health care needs,
a new transfer must be introduced. Those who are wealthy must participate in a
transfer to those with more modest incomes but with greater health care needs.
Health care is now so expensive that providing reasonably comprehensive
benefits for everyone would not be possible without that transfer.

The most
efficient and equitable method of financing health care is through the adoption
of progressive tax policies. That way health care would be affordable for
everyone since each person would be contributing into the system based on his
or her ability to pay, rather than based on the package of benefits offered.