Healthcare Calculator

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Single-payer National Health Insurance Program

According to Joel Harrison, Ph.D., MPH, Americans underestimate how much they subsidize the current U.S. health care system out of their own pockets. Even people without health insurance pay large sums into the system today – and for a system that provides seriously inadequate care to millions of Americans (Dollars and Sense Magazine, May/June 2008 issue).

For purposes of demonstrating the savings we could have by adopting a single-payer national health insurance program, we are using the financing and benefits structure of HR 676 “The United States National Health Care Act” or “Expanded and Improved Medicare for All”. Savings estimated using HR 676 may be different in a final version of a single payer national health program bill. The financing mechanisms in the final single-payer bill may also be different from those proposed by HR 676.

Proposed Funding with HR 676

A great deal of U.S. health care is currently funded by taxes (e.g., VA and active duty military medical services, Indian Health Service, Medicaid, Medicare, government employees’ health insurance). Currently, all U.S. citizens and residents pay 1.45% of gross wages or income from work as a standard Medicare tax. This portion of annual health care costs would not change under HR676 and is unlikely to change in a single payer program.

Instead of private health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket payments, HR 676 proposes payroll taxes on employee, employer, and the self-employed to partially fund universal, guaranteed, comprehensive health care for life. Other funding includes a small tax on stock transactions, a small income surtax on the top 5% income bracket and savings from administrative simplification and bulk purchasing of drugs and other medical supplies.

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