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HealthConnections: What is Single Payer?

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Let's save health care!

Okay, how?

That's where the country is right now. Polls show Americans generally agree health options, coverage and care could stand a good spruce-up (or even a major renovation). But how, and by how much, are open questions that, for now, have no clear answers either among the public or among elected officials.

One proposal is called the single-payer option. A 2016 Kaiser poll found more than four in ten Americans support single-payer; this summer, that figure went up, even among Republicans. But what IS single-payer, and how does it work? On this edition of HealthConnections, Dr. Carole Myers explores the pros and cons of that approach. She also examines philosophical objections to single-payer, and where the nation's health conversation might go from here.