Simply put, single payer is health insurance – or the payment of health care – that you would have through the non-profit state of Pennsylvania rather than through a private, profit-first insurance company. The state would be the “single payer” of your health care and would cover all Pennsylvania residents. One would pay this fee instead of an insurance premium. There would be no deductibles or copays.

Think of it as buying health care at wholesale prices instead of retail prices, like you would a particular brand of cereal at a wholesale outlet instead of a grocery store. It’s the exact same product, but because it’s being purchased in major bulk by the millions of Pennsylvania taxpayers (instead of the mere thousands of customers of a particular health insurance company), you wind up getting a lot more of it at a much lower cost.

No. Contrary to popular belief, it’s our current profit-first insurance system that results in rationing. It has led to thousands of rejected medical claims as well as financial ruin in the way of home foreclosures and bankruptcy due to medical bills for significant numbers of families. Huge deductibles have also caused people even with insurance to forego using it. And, even with the ACA being fully implemented, lack of insurance still results in deaths here in Pennsylvania.

By contrast, the PA Plan expands comprehensive care. And more nurses, doctors and other medical providers will be made available to all Pennsylvania residents.

Yes! PA single payer guarantees you the freedom to choose which doctors, dentists, hospitals, and other medical care providers you want. Secondly, the other benefits to single payer are that it includes dental, vision, prescription drugs, mental health services, addiction treatment, hospital, doctor services, and more. It also does away with premiums, deductibles, and co-pays. And the PA Plan finally eliminates the need to purchase health care for families & for businesses.

No, no, a thousand times no. Socialized medicine is when the doctors are government employees, and the hospitals are government owned. The Veterans Administration (VA) is a good example of socialized medicine. On the other hand, in the proposed PA single payer, doctors will continue to be in private enterprise, as will hospitals and other private medical care providers. With the PA Plan, you will still get to choose your own doctors and hospitals, and competition among medical providers will increase as you, not an insurance company, decide where to get care. You and your doctor will still decide what treatments and courses of action to take.

A single payer system is the only system that insures everyone, making it truly “universal.” Unfortunately, the ACA is not single payer. While it may be a first step, it’s only a first step. That’s because it’s simply an extension of the current private insurance system. Yes, the ACA expands coverage, but it still leaves too many Pennsylvanians uninsured and fails to cut the unsustainable costs of health care.

Now for the good news. The ACA allows states the option to innovate with their own health care plan so long as the proposed plan is more economical and efficient than the ACA. Our single payer plan, the PHCP, does just that.

Absolutely not. The PA Plan frees you from job-based insurance – or what has become known as “job lock.” Coverage would be in no way tied to employers anymore since they would no longer be administering health insurance.

The PA Plan addresses the current problem for doctors and hospitals to absorb the cost of care for the uninsured. It would provide payment to doctors and hospitals for all care.

There would be no other out of pocket costs for your Medicare and drug coverage. Medicare Part A would continue to be paid for by the Federal Government, as it is now. Parts B and D would be paid by the state of PA.

While the PHCP requires all businesses to pay a flat percentage of payroll into the system, Additional benefits come from a lower cost for vehicle insurance, workers compensation, liability insurance and COBRA obligations.

And further savings will come about by removing such issues as:

• Retiree health care costs, or “legacy costs”

• Contentious collective bargaining over health care

• Double-digit percentage increases in insurance costs

Finally, single payer promotes true free and open market principles, but where it should be – at the provider level (doctors, hospitals, etc.), not at the insurance company level.

Net job creation under this plan in all sectors of the PA economy is estimated to be between 120,000 to 200,000 jobs. While private health care companies will no longer be needed in Pennsylvania, their employees – medical, administrative, and clerical – will be eligible for re-training and placement, some with the new public payer system and some in other careers.

Simply put, the PA Plan would be the most business-friendly model out there and would make our state much more vibrant for companies and industries already here and more attractive for those outside of our state borders.