Single Payer Health Insurance: Officially Off the Table

Incoming Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday that single payer health care is not an option for the Obama administration, but it does support a public plan option[1] intended to promote competition with private insurers. Dr Howard Dean in an interview with Think Progress says Medicare is 3 to 10 times more efficient in terms of administrative cost than private insurance.  During his tenure as governor,  the state's Medicaid program was turned over to a private insurer to save money, but after three years the program cost was 3 times what it cost the state run it. According to Dean only a public option will change the fundamental structural inefficiency of the current broken system.

[1] Twenty-one Democratic Senators support a public option: Sens. Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI), Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD) Russ Feingold (D-WI), Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), John D. (Jay) Rockefeller (D-WV), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI), Carl Levin (D-MI), Jack Reed (D-RI), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Bob Casey (D-PA), Jim Webb (D-VA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Ted Kaufman (D-DE), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).