Single Payer is the Best Way to Control Costs
Legislation under consideration at the federal level can do no more than bring most of the nation up to the level Vermont already is at in terms of cost control.
Vermont has:
- Lower costs per person
- Lower rates of uninsured
- Better quality care than most of the nation
Nevertheless, Vermont has little if any control over the rapid rise in health care costs. In the years 2000–2008 Vermont's costs doubled from $2.2 billion ($6 million a day) to $4.4 billion ($12 million a day). [Source: BISHCA].
None of Vermont's legislated programs have slowed cost increases. They can't, because they are selective and non-systemic and they leave intact a system in which 30 percent of expenditures are for administration and profits, half of which are unnecessary. Studies show that the cost of the unnecessary administration is enough to cover all of the uninsured and underinsured. [Sources: Analysis of the Costs and Impact of a Universal Health Care Coverage Under a Single Payer Model for the State of Vermont byThe Lewin Group, 2001 and Physicians for a National Health Program report on the International Journal of Health Services study].
Single Payer Manages Costs to the Public's Advantage
It can do this because:
- It creates a health care system, so that cost controls are applied systematically.
- It works under a coordinated budget, so that all health care services are guaranteed adequate funding.
- It establishes uniform rules of reimbursement, so that half the money spent on administering reimbursements is realized in savings.
- It creates a single drug formulary that not only creates administrative savings, but also allows the government to bargain for lower drug costs.
- It establishes health planning that would reduce costly duplication of services.
Every study acknowledges that single payer is the most fiscally conservative and efficient system for providing health care.
Read more about controlling health care costs with single payer.