single-payer healthcare system

What is a single-payer healthcare system?

Single-payer system is a healthcare system in which one entity – a single payer – collects all healthcare fees and pays for all healthcare costs. In countries that have single-payer systems, the government is usually the payer. Proponents of a single-payer system argue that because there are fewer entities involved in the healthcare system, the system can avoid an enormous amount of administrative waste.

Instead, all healthcare providers in a single-payer system would bill one entity for their services. Within a single-payer system, all citizens would receive high-quality, comprehensive medical care PLUS the freedom to choose providers to a greater extent than most network-based health plans allow. Paperwork would also be dramatically reduced.

A single-payer system – like the Canadian health system and the United States’ Medicare system – is NOT the same thing as socialized medicine.