This, in turn, has rekindled calls on the left to create a European-style “single-payer” system, in which the government directly pays for every American’s health care. The public piece of the American health-care system has not proven itself to be particularly cost-efficient. With monopoly buying power, the government could tighten up on health-care spending by dictating prices for services and drugs. A big reason it does not clamp down now on health-care spending is that it is hard to do so politically. A single-payer health-care system would face all of these political barriers to cost-saving reform and more.

Source: Washington Post June 18, 2017 23:15 UTC