Ep 48: Digging Deeper Into the Challenges of a Single Payer System - Part I

In this episode, Suzanne Spradley and Chase Cannon announce a three-part mini-series aimed at better understanding the challenges facing a single payer system (sometimes called “Medicare for All”) in the US. In the first part, Suzanne re-sets the discussion on single payer systems and describes some of the different arrangements and titles that fall under that general term. Suzanne describes the challenges facing different single payer systems in the UK and in Canada, including information on wait times and quality of care outlined in recent studies. Chase and Suzanne discuss funding of single payer systems, and how single payer systems generally result in higher taxation across the board. Suzanne finishes with a description of the challenges facing the Veterans Affairs (VA) program, which is a version of a government-run health care system right here in the US. The two outline the next two parts to the mini-series: part two will focus on parts of the US system that are working, including the employer-sponsored group health insurance market, and part three will dig deeper into the financing and funding of some of the proposals thrown around in US political debates.