Question

Briefly analyze & discuss the advantages and disadvantages for adopting single payer system for a National Health Insurance policy. Would you support or oppose this system? Why?

Answer 1

In the long run for reform under healthcare, one type represents the single payer system. A single payer health care system is a universal health care insurance system that covers all medical essential services ( doctors, hospitals, dental, prescription and mental health etc) provided by the government authority that seeks to cover all of the population. It is an interesting proposal as a system which includes public funding through taxes wherein delivery could be from private or public players. The single payer system examples includes UK's National Health service, Australia's Medicare etc. In America, Its term is Medicare for all.
Such a reform requires assessment of its relative advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages: 1) It seeks to achieve a universal health insurance cover for all the population that would result in decrease in illness, early catch of diseases and improved healthcare knowledge.
2) Reduction in administrative costs is one of the key advantages being hailed as the public authority at the forefront of regulating services and medicine
3) A step towards eliminating private health care bureaucracy.
4) The single payer system allows the establishment of rate consistency that helps the patients not worry about higher fees of doctors and reduces the problems of uninsured.

Disadvantages:
1) Burden on taxes and ultimately on population: since the funding has to be financed for this universal cover, it seek the funding by the way of taxation which is definitely going to lead to increase in taxes and the burden would ultimately fall on the people
2) Since one of the advantages called for decrease in private bureaucracy, but single payer system regulated by the public authority stands at a risk of increasing governmental bureaucracy issues.
3) Moreover, such regulation and restriction of private players and more hands from the government could contribute to declining innovation and advancement in health care.
4) Since its establishment it will reduce the role of private sector, it stands at a risk of working against the free market mechanism.

Through the advantages and disadvantages, one can form his or her own opinions about the validity and sense of the single payer system. Though it seeks to achieve a greater good and help the government to achieve the goal of welfare system, it stands towards hurting private sector working, added access time failures and a risk of creating an economic burden.