Single-payer is not about health care — it is about paying for it. Because of a historical fluke, insurance companies got into it.
When employers competed for scarce labor during World War II, offering higher wages was not permitted to prevent inflation. So they offered “free” health insurance to be more competitive.
Second, insurance is based on statistics and probability, which actuaries use to calculate premiums.
But since everybody needs health care sooner or later, actuaries become irrelevant and insurers, if any, must charge the full cost for everybody plus a profit. This has led to an unsustainable, wasteful, intolerable cost increase for everybody.
Even “nonprofit” insurers’ chief executives walk away with huge retirement package: $7 million in Vermont, $22 million in Massachusetts. You and I are paying for that.
Third and last, single-payer does not involve government in health care, only in paying for it.
And as for records, they are increasingly kept electronically, and government already has access to your personal information.
PETER MOSS
Fairfax