They miscalculated based on false info from Obamacare...like how many young health people would just pay the fine because they couldn't afford insurance...and how many very sick people would suddenly jump into the pool without having paid anything in. Also, the programs were subsidized by the government so people didn't really see the "real" cost of their insurance plans and each year a little less is subsidized.
The problem with going to single payer is that there is a limited amount of money available and that has to cover everyone. What will happen is that care will become rationed instead of everyone getting the latest greatest treatments. Rationing can be refusing treatment to people or limiting how many people can get a treatment each month and therefore making long waits for care...and then the critical patients just die before they get to the point where they can actually get care that might have saved them.
I have been discussing hysterectomy and menopause care with some ladies in England and Canada...and the lack of care they are getting sort of horrifies me. It takes forever to get seen...and then they are poo-poo'd and send home without things that are standard care here. When my husband was fighting cancer, I was online with a woman who had the same strange type of cancer. In the time he had 3 surgeries and a 4 months of chemo, she was required to wait for the scan that would help diagnose her cancer. However, since this was a very aggressive cancer, chances are that she was dead before she got this simple PET scan...and if not, she was beyond treatment. My husband was in surgery within 10 days of finding out he had this aggressive strain....and 4 of those days were waiting to get in with the right specialist.
I also work in healthcare and the idea of single payer care scares me to death. Research will go away because there is no profit in it (profit is needed to pay for the studies and the treatments that don't work). I also think they will overwork the people in the hospitals until all the quality people leave for other professions. I know how much my unit has changed since Obamacare has kicked in and decisions are made based on the budget and not what is best for the patient or the staff.
We already have a model of government run single payer medical system...The VA Hospital System. I don't know how that idea excites anyone? (My husband and brother both had care by the VA...good medicine but no luxuries at all and you go home the minute the matrix says you qualify. Never mind how you feel.
Don't believe me? This is a problem in Canada right now. This young girl was approved for a treatment that was likely to put her leukemia in remission if not cure her. However, the hospital only budgeted for 5 beds a month to receive this treatment. There were 30 people in front of her and she died waiting. (Note, she wasn't waiting for an organ to become available but rather a BED in the hospital...an appointment for the procedure, in otherwords.) Rationed healthcare at its finest.
Plea from dying teen: Please help | Toronto Star