Why Doesn't America have Single-Payer Health Insurance?

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2008/09/16/The_Future_of_Health_Care_The_Candidates_Plans

Daniel Kessler and E. Richard Brown, Health Advisors to the John McCain and Barack Obama Presidential campaigns, respectively, discuss why neither candidate supports a single-payer insurance system for the United States.

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Health care is a major issue in the current presidential campaign. Candidates Barack Obama and John McCain have laid out very different visions, and each believes his plan is best for our nation's citizenry.

Come learn about each plan from the top policy advisors of each candidate, and take the opportunity to ask your own questions and get answers - The Commonwealth Club of California

Daniel Kessler is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. In addition to his Hoover appointment, he is an associate professor at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, where he teaches courses on economics, public policy, and the health care industry. Among his recent publications are, with Mark McClellan, The Effect of Hospital Ownership on Medical Productivity, forthcoming in the RAND Journal of Economics, and Designing Hospital Antitrust Policy to Promote Social Welfare, which appeared in Frontiers in Health Policy Research. He is the holder of a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a J.D. from Stanford Law School.

Dr. E. Richard Brown is a professor at the UCLA School of Public Health and the founder and director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. He received his PhD in sociology of education from the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Brown has studied and written extensively about a broad range of issues and policies that affect the access of disadvantaged populations to health care. His recent research focuses on health insurance coverage, the lack of coverage, and the effects of public policies, managed care, and market conditions on access to health services, particularly for disadvantaged populations, ethnic minorities, and immigrants. Dr. Brown and the Center's studies of health insurance coverage, uninsurance, and eligibility for public programs have been used by California's governors, legislators, and advocates in crafting health insurance legislation and programs.

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[0s0e0a0n0100]

i dont have anything to worry about. i live in australia and get FREE health care. unlucky for america....... ha ha

[nibblesann]

I'm 20 and even I realize the only solution is for the US is to adopt a single payer health care plan for all Americans.

[punkwasher]

If you run a health care system for profit, you're effectively putting a price on people's lives and that's just wrong no matter which way you twist and distort the facts, thank you very much!

[thereinliestherib]

@funkyflights You're friend was still liable for catastrphic accidents, of course--but his overall risk level would still have been much, much lower than the overall population. Once again, you're assuming equality of risk across the population, which is absurd. No other country on EARTH compares with US rates for obesity and overweight--in fact, if you are of a healthy weight in America, you belong to one of the smallest, shrinking national minorities.

[funkyflights]

@thereinliestherib

Yeah I know people are fat in America and every other industrialized nation on planet earth there all fit and healthy... LMAO... And this is coming from a guy that tells me sickness can't find you if your in good shape.... Tell that to my friends buddy who just died of cancer at age 31 .. Just yesterday... He ate good and exercised daily.... Only facts you've provided is your own ignorance...

[thereinliestherib]

@funkyflights "No matter what you say your solution is ignorant and not reality... " Which of course is why all I've provided is easily-verifiable facts, and you've given me none of the sort. Have fun with perpetually increasing insurance costs and rising obesity, utterly oblivious of the clear connections therein.

[funkyflights]

@thereinliestherib

Dude you just don't get it and you never will.... No matter what you say your solution is ignorant and not reality... maybe we can spread some magical pixie dust over the USA and everyone will be healthy and in shape and never get sick and insurance rates will come plummeting down for all families and NO one will ever be denied payment for treatment... Until then enjoy your trip to never never land... Say hi to Peter for me and bring back that pixie dust....

[thereinliestherib]

@funkyflights You have absolutely no idea what your talking about. Health insurance companies are obligated to their contractual agreements as with any other insurance companies. If this was not the case, securities liabilities would be rescinded, causing all out economic anarchy in which parties are not held to their contractual agreements. Medicare is broke--got a plan to fix it? "Spend more"? Didn't think so.

[thereinliestherib]

@funkyflights You're absolutely a waste of time. The reason we spend more and have lower outcomes is obviously because we are a far less healthy country, which then places a disproportional and discriminatory burden on the few who actually take care of their health. The stats you cite blatantly disregard starkly contrasted differences in population composition on the referent of risk, but ayyyyyy, who needs reality anyway???

[funkyflights]

@thereinliestherib

A new report finds that the U.S. spends far more on health care than any of the other 29 OECD nations, and gets less health for its money. Annual public and private health-care spending in the U.S. stands at $7,538 per person, 2.41 times the OECD average and 51% more than the second-biggest spender, Norway. Meanwhile, average U.S. life expectancy is 77.9 years, less than the OECD average of 79.4.