Background Fact Sheet on Single Payer

1. 47.0 million Americans were uninsured in 2006. (US Census Bureau)
2. More than 18,000 adults die from lack of coverage annually, according to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.
3. Tens of millions more are under-insured, lacking adequate coverage for drugs, long term care or mental health services.
4. After a lull in the mid 1990s, health care costs are again rising steeply. The National Center for Health Statistics estimates that, absent major reform, health spending will reach 17.7% of GDP by 2012.
5. Every other developed nation has some form of national health insurance, yet U.S. health spending is far higher — 42% higher than in Switzerland, which has world’s the second most expensive health care system, and 83% higher than in Canada (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Health Database, 2002).
6. At present, GOVERNMENT spending on health care in the U.S. is higher than TOTAL spending on health care in Canada. (Health Affairs, July/August 2002)
7. Single payer national health insurance would save at least $350 billion annually on paperwork and administration, enough to cover all of the uninsured and to upgrade coverage for Medicare enrollees and others who are under-insured. Studies by the Congressional Budget Office, the General Accounting Office and several private consulting firms all agree that NHI could assure universal, comprehensive coverage without increasing total health spending.
8. No other reform can slash administrative costs. Assertions that computerization or patchwork reforms will cut bureaucratic costs are not credible. Most health insurance claims are already computerized. Private insurers keep a big share of their premiums as overhead in every nation. Allowing them to continue playing a big role in health care guarantees high administrative costs.
9. Surveys show surprisingly strong support for single payer NHI, even among groups that have long opposed it. 59% of physicians now endorse single payer NHI, as do 40% of small business owners. Polls have long shown that a majority of Americans favor some form of NHI. (Annals of Internal Medicine, 2008)
10. The current economic downturn strengthens the case for NHI. States facing budget crises are cutting Medicaid and other social programs. They should instead use the vast administrative savings from a single payer program to implement universal coverage; NHI could pay for itself. NHI would also relieve the crisis for workers, unions and corporations grappling with skyrocketing premiums