Simple Health Care policy question!! help!!?

Question

Does a single-payer health care policy fall under the category of a public insurance program like medicaid? and how does it if does?? If it doesn't what sort of category would a single-payer system fall under?

Answer 1

"Single-payer is a term used to describe a type of financing system. It refers to one entity acting as administrator, or “payer.” In the case of health care, a single-payer system would be setup such that one entity—a government run organization—would collect all health care fees, and pay out all health care costs."

http://www.pnhp.org/facts/what_is_single...

"Single-payer health care is an American term describing the payment for doctors, hospitals and other providers of health care from a single fund. The Canadian health care system, the British National Health Service, Australia's Medicare, and Medicare in the U.S. for the elderly and disabled are single-payer systems.

According to the National Library of Medicine's Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) thesaurus, a "Single-Payer System" is

    An approach to health care financing with only one source of money for paying health care providers. The scope may be national (the Canadian System), state-wide, or community-based. The payer may be a governmental unit or other entity such as an insurance company. The proposed advantages include administrative simplicity for patients and providers, and resulting significant savings in overhead costs.

Some writers argue that the single payer is the government,but the preceding definition as well as some single-payer proponents in the U.S. leave the government's role open to interpretation. However, the term "single payer" is never used to indicate that the patient bears sole responsibility for all payment.

Single payer is one alternative proposed for reforming the U.S. health care system. Proponents argue that it would provide universal coverage with at least the same quality and lower costs. Critics argue that single payer would harm quality of care and medical innovation, and instead advocate tax incentives[4] and free market approaches.

The term single-payer is sometimes used in the U.S. to distinguish systems paid from a single (governmental) source with other systems of universal health care in which the government has a higher degree of control, up to and including administering hospitals and employing doctors and staff, though logically these too are single payer systems. When the term single payer is used in this way, doctors' practices and hospitals may remain private and negotiate with the government for fees.

Opponents of publicly funded health care in the U.S. often lump single payer systems along with others under the pejorative term socialized medicine."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-paye...

Answer 2

No, a single payer health insurance policy  (not health CARE, but INSURANCE) is a private policy.