Single Payer Healthcare

1079 Words5 Pages
For thousands of years healthcare has varied; healthcare has ranged from tribal doctors healing the sick using herbs, to 1800’s English doctors using leeches to cure people from the flu. The modernization and advancements in germ theory have dramatically increased the lifespan of survival rates from only 1 % of individuals surviving to the age of 76 in 1660, to 70% of the population surviving in 1993. (Meyer, 2004) While these changes have been no doubt positive to the populace of the world, the question of who deserves this treatment and how to administer it in a world where we have such a vast population. This research paper aims to examine the effectiveness of single payer healthcare to dramatically reduce costs, save lives of economically marginalized citizens, streamline money to the most needy, and provide a safety net for a threat of a bioterror attack. Single payer healthcare is defined by PNHP (PNHP, 2012) as “a system in which a single public agency organizes health financing, but delivery of care remains largely private.” The definitions while demonstrating some of the effects doesn’t fully articulate the implications of a single payer program. Generally, a single payer healthcare system is a social service which is financed by taxes. (PNHP, 2012) This money is then funneled to hospitals that use that money to provide care to the public as need be. (PNHP, 2012) Some of the money can also be used to finance building of new healthcare infrastructure, educational programs for doctors as well as public outreach programs. (PNHP, 2012) But, while single payer healthcare may be a fantastic way of managing healthcare what’s wrong with America’s healthcare. While it may be not known by the general public “the United States ranks 37th out of 191 countries in average life expectancy. Spain came in at fourth, followed by Italy, Canada, Norway, the Netherlands,
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