Is ObamaCare Paving the Way for a Single-Payer System?

Suffering from illness or injury? Good thing you’re not British. U.K. police recently investigated the deaths of 300 patients at one hospital. The suspected cause is? Neglect. That could never happen in America, right? On the contrary. ObamaCare’s new insurance exchanges and expansion of Medicaid represent the building blocks of a British-style, government-run health care system in this country, says Sally C. Pipes, president, CEO and Taube Fellow in Health Care Studies at the Pacific Research Institute.

If that system metastasizes, rationed care and subpar health outcomes will follow.

Less than four in 10 Americans say they support “single-payer” health care.

Consider ObamaCare’s health insurance exchanges, which are scheduled to open for enrollment on October 1. Each was intended to be a state-run marketplace offering affordable coverage options. The exchanges haven’t unfolded as planned.

Those markets won’t function properly if people don’t enroll.

Without young people’s premiums to cover costs for older people, the insurance prices will skyrocket. The federal government may feel compelled to reduce premiums, or simply insure everyone directly.

Add the 13 million new Medicaid enrollees to the nearly 63 million people already enrolled and the 50 million people on Medicare, and more than 40 percent of the country will be on publicly financed insurance.

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