Reply #61: Single payer, universal healthcare is not socialized medicine,

[Vinca]

it's a method of paying the bills. The government wouldn't employ the doctors or own the hospitals. Your healthcare (if you have it) would be about the same except you wouldn't have to worry about an insurance company denying coverage after the fact and going bankrupt. Rather than 90 million different claim forms for all those for profit insurance companies, there would be 1 form, 1 submission, 1 place to send for payment and it could probably be done electronically. It would, of course, be paid for by an increase in taxes somewhere, but since the profit motive would be removed, the increase in taxes would be a fraction of what an insurance premium would be. I've estimated, after considering the insurance company profits, that our family would probably be on the hook for $3,000 in taxes as opposed to $12,000 in premiums (if we could afford it). And that's not counting the $5,000 deductible that goes with the $12,000, the co-pays, denials, etc., etc. If the Republicans sat down and did the math, they'd realize they would have money in their greedy hands at the end of the month with universal, single payer.