Comment by nradov

Simply replacing private payers with a single payer system ("Medicare for all" or whatever) wouldn't do much to cut US healthcare spending. Payer profit margins are relatively low and in total only constitute a small fraction of total healthcare spending. Any real savings would have to come from severe price controls on providers, drugs, and medical devices. Plus some forms of rationing. I'm not necessarily opposed to that, but it would be difficult to build a political consensus for it.