[make3]

single payer health insurance would be much cheaper if you just have the equivalent of what you pay now to the government. Single insurer=massive negotiation power. The US has the most expensive health care per person in the world

[sokoloff]

Many people do not trust that the government would achieve as good an outcome as their current private insurance. Probably a greater number fear that healthcare would become more inconvenient for them. (I’m 100% sure of the latter and maybe 50/50 on the former.)

[make3]

The government can literally force healthcare providers to accept prices if it's the only payer. It can even write laws forcing them to accept those prices. It would take some time to adjust, but eventually you would ask win. Right now you both have the most expensive in total, expensive in median and the most unfair.

http://time.com/2888403/u-s-health-care-ranked-worst-in-the-...

[nybble41]

> The government can literally force healthcare providers to accept prices if it's the only payer.

In the short term, perhaps. Long-term, though, the government can't force anyone to provide healthcare; they can only prohibit charging more for it than their chosen price ceiling. If that ceiling isn't high enough to make providing healthcare a worthwhile occupation the inevitable result is shortages, rationing, waiting lists, and—ultimately—people going without health care they could otherwise afford, were anyone allowed to provide it at the market-clearing price.

[sokoloff]

I don’t have any doubt they could do such things, just as they’ve done for driver and vehicle licensing. When I or a family member needs medical care, I don’t look forward to a DMV-like experience.

[mrguyorama]

I routinely have spent less than half an hour at the DMV doing anything I need to, with productive and helpful staff who seemed educated about rules, requirements, and best practices.

I didn't even get a bill in the mail for it!

It's almost like some states/municipalities actually fund things and care about it, and they have good results.