Single Payer Resources

10 Myths and Facts

Myth 1: Health care costs are increasing because consumers are going to the doctor too much.

Fact: Physicians and other medical providers tell patients what medical care they need; it’s not a patient decision.

Fact: Providers are demanding double and triple increases in their rates.

Conclusion: The “conventional wisdom” about what is driving the cost of health care is not based on well documented utilization data.

Myth 5: Universal health care would result in government control of our health care.

Fact: A publicly administered finance system will put medical decision-making back in the hands of medical professionals and their patients—unlike today, when doctors have to get permission for medical tests or treatments from an insurance administrator who has little or no medical training.

Fact: A single-payer plan can have provisions to protect the healthcare system from undue influence on its administration: strong conflict of interest rules and prohibitions on financial connections to for-profit insurance and pharmaceutical companies.

Conclusion: A single-payer healthcare system administered by a state public health agency would be much more democratic and less abuse-prone than our current system. Consumers and providers would have a voice in determining benefits, rates and financing.

Myth 10: In order to be able to afford to insure everyone under a universal healthcare system, benefits would have to be reduced for people who currently have a good health insurance plan.

Fact: Given that everyone in the United States—consumers, employers and taxpayers—now pays $2,000 more per year, per person than any other industrialized nation, we could have a “Cadillac” universal health care system just by using our dollars more efficiently.

Fact: A single-payer system would replace the current system of multiple public and private insurers with a single, reliable insurance plan. This plan would save $20 billion in administrative costs alone. In addition, buying prescription drugs and durable medical equipment (e.g., wheelchairs) in bulk would save another $5.2 billion. That is more than enough to provide every Californian with a high-quality, affordable health plan and to cover the uninsured, who are currently forced to use expensive emergency room treatment that taxpayers end up paying for anyway.

Conclusion: The best solution to the healthcare crisis is for California to assert its purchasing power, get rid of our for-profit insurance system, and cut administrative waste out of the healthcare system. This can be achieved through a single-payer, universal healthcare system.