Single Payer

Private health insurance will remain off-limits for most Canadians, especially those in British Columbia. The Supreme Court of Canada just refused to hear an appeal challenging British Columbia’s ban on private coverage. It marks the end of a battle that Vancouver orthopedic surgeon Dr. Brian Day, founder of the successful private Cambie ...

The California Senate will hold a hearing today on a bill that would lay the groundwork for a government takeover of the state’s health care system. Legislators have been trying to install single-payer health care for years. But this new effort has a better chance of advancing than its legislative ...

Over the last few years, several states have tried their hand at creating a “public option” health insurance plan. Their experiences offer a cautionary tale to those pushing for similar reforms at the federal level — as well as to states considering public options of their own. In its purest form, the ...

Editor’s note: Today’s blog is part two of a three part series featuring PRI’s CEO & President Sally Pipes’ health care speech delivered at Reason Weekend on March 18th.  Despite the obvious failures of Obamacare and Medicaid, Democrats still can’t get enough of public health care. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) ...

California is dreaming about a government takeover of health insurance once again. Earlier this month, state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, introduced SB 770. The bill would seek a federal waiver to allow the state to use federal funds earmarked for Medicare and Medicaid to create a state-run health insurance system that ...

Single-payer healthcare is back on the legislative agenda in New York, California, and Oregon. And just like previous efforts by state governments to take over their health insurance markets, these new ones are nothing to celebrate. Single-payer healthcare invariably leads to long waits for low-quality care, all paid for by ...

While Democrats in Washington extol the virtues of socialized medicine, Canada’s most populous province is beginning to move away from single-payer health care. Last month, Conservative Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced plans to increase its reliance on private healthcare providers. The move is a necessary response to the ongoing crisis in Canada’s ...

In my last column, I wrote that Canada’s healthcare system was no model for the United States. Perhaps Canadian officials were listening. Earlier this month, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced that Canada’s largest province would take a page from the U.S. playbook—and expand private care in order to provide some relief to the ...

Sen. Bernie Sanders would do well to look at what’s happening across our northern border before he tries to advance legislation that would import Canada’s single-payer health care system, where the government is the only insurer. The new chairman of the influential Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, he’s made clear ...

Next week, the U.S. Senate will return to work in Washington. Several key committees will welcome new leaders, including the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, which will be led by Vermont socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders. Sen. Sanders has promised to make “universal health care” a focus of his tenure atop the ...