The Slow Slide Into Single-Payer Health Care

The share of people getting health insurance from the

 government has steadily increased. 

(©Andy Dean/stock.adobe.com)

Health Care: For decades, liberal Democrats have been advocating a single-payer health care system where government pays all the bills. The public has never supported this idea, but it looks like the country is headed there anyway, slowly but surely.

The latest data from the Census Bureau show that just since President Obama took office, the number of Americans getting health care through a government program -- Medicare, Medicaid, the VA, etc. -- shot up by 32 million (an increase of more than 32%).

In contrast, the number of people getting coverage from private insurers has gone up 11.6 million (a gain of less than 6%).

This is part of a longer trend toward socialized medicine. Between 1980 and 2014, the share of all national health spending paid by federal, state and local governments has gone from 29% to 45%, according to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which tracks national health spending. In less than decade, the CMS expects that number to climb to 47%.

Read the rest of this IBD editorial HERE.

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