tazzygirl
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The United States, Canada and Australia have single-payer health insurance programs named Medicare; however, Australia's and Canada's programs provide universal health care, while U.S. Medicare is only for senior citizens and some of the disabled.[2] Government is increasingly involved in U.S. health care spending, paying about 45% of the $2.2 trillion the nation spent on individuals' medical care in 2004.[3] However, studies have shown that the publicly-administered share of health spending in the U.S. is closer to 60%.[4]
Single-payer healthcare may be operated in a number of ways. In some cases doctors may be employed, and hospitals run by, the government. This is the case in the United Kingdom, and is referred to in the US as socialized medicine. Alternatively the government may purchase healthcare services from outside organizations. This is the approach taken in Canada.
According to Princeton University health economist Uwe E. Reinhardt, U.S. Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP represent "forms of 'social insurance' coupled with a largely private health-care delivery system" rather than forms of "socialized medicine." In contrast, he describes the Veterans Administration healthcare system as a pure form of socialized medicine because it is "owned, operated and financed by government."[5]
The Veterans Administration is a single-payer system and provides excellent quality, said Reinhardt. In a peer-reviewed paper published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers of the RAND Corp. reported that the quality of care received by Veterans Administration patients scored significantly higher overall than did comparable metrics for patients currently using U.S. Medicare.[6]
Some writers describe publicly administered health care systems as "single-payer plans." Some writers have described any system of health care which intends to cover the entire population, such as voucher plans, as "single-payer plans,"[7] although this is an uncommon usage. The standard usage refers to health insurance, as opposed to healthcare delivery, operating as a public service, like fire departments, community libraries, and other publicly-funded services, offered to citizens and legal residents towards providing near-universal or universal health care. The fund can be managed by the government directly or as a publicly owned and regulated agency.[8]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-payer_health_care
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Negative effects of Healthcare Reform on Medicare - 
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