Single-Payer versus Universal Health Care--Graham vs Porter/Teisberg

Single-payer options have a lot of merit, from both an economic standpoint and from the standpoint of moving towards a healthier society.

Check out this fantastic single-payer animation (which apparently was done by a doc while still in school).

My only adaptation of a single-payer approach would be that any such approach much ensure adequate competition, as discussed in more detail by Michael Porter and Elizabeth Olmstead Teisberg in their book Redefining Health Care.

In their book, the authors do conclude that traditional single-payer approaches can't/won't solve our problems, but state that the reasons for this are based on the assumption that a single-payer solution will eliminate competition as it has in other countries.  My take is that single-payer health reform and competition are not mutually exclusive.  We have an opportunity to learn from the weaknesses in other single-payer systems, and have experience from the polar opposite to design a "single-payer 2.0" option.

However you feel about single-payer, the authors provide a very nice and very thorough description of why universal coverage is essential to solve our problems.