Question

What are the potential benefits of having a Single Payer Universal Health Insurance system?

What are the potential detriments of having a Single Payer Universal Health Insurance system?

Answer 1

1. Everyone gets covered.
Under a single payer program, there are no concerns about health insurance benefits or affordable care. When they feel sick, need care or have an accident, everyone is allowed to see the doctor. If you are wealthy, or poor, it doesn't matter. Medical insurance is a right under a single payer scheme, instead of being viewed as a luxury.
Providers are made payable at the same time.

Providers are made payable at the same time.
Patients don't have to worry about making a doctor want to charge them $320 an hour for a visit as their health insurance makes that limit. There are no different rates for insured individuals compared with those that are not insured either. Rate transparency helps health care providers to know exactly how much payment they will get.

This provides incentives for investment.
Smaller systems can generate more competition but their spending power may also be limited. Large networks using a single pool of cash generate leverage for spending as their size helps them to negotiate lower average prices. In return, for all, the cost of delivering treatment through the use of medical equipment, prescription drugs, and other facilities will go down.

2. Medical providers can only opt for private-pay unless otherwise legally necessary.
The idea of making less money per service isn't appealing to many medical professionals, particularly when moving from a free-market system. Because single payer systems may require a private-pay alternative to be created, many communities will see a decrease or removal of single payer system options unless government requires that care alternatives continue to be made available.

This does not fix the issue of the shortage of doctors.
One of the greatest challenges facing the US is a lack of trained medical personnel. In 2016 Forbes estimated that there will be a shortage of up to 94,700 physicians in the US by 2025 to care for the aging population, even with the growth of specialists. And with a single payer program in place, in some regions patients will still be faced with the lack of access issue.

The revenue that has to come from elsewhere for a single payer scheme.
The pool of cash used for treatment usually comes from taxes for countries which have already developed a single payer program. That is now seen in the US even by the withholding tax on Medicare / Medicaid income. Corporate and sales taxes are also imposed to supplement the fund, with some countries levying higher fuel taxes.