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Our tort system doesn't work well at all for dealing with mistakes. When people are denied coverage for procedures, exams, tests etc under our current system they have very little recourse most places because, as Michael Moore demonstrated in "Sicko," a lot of insurance companies have explicit - to their employees not the customers - policies to reduce costs by denying coverage. A single payer plan would have to have some way for patients to challenge coverage decisions but it surely could be a lot simpler, quicker, and cheaper than our current non-system.
We have probably the most expensive health care in the world, but what often gets left out of these discussions is the reminder that we have the worst outcomes - death, infant mortality, disability etc etc - of every industrialized country except for Cuba. I think there are something like 34 or 35 countries ahead of us, and ahead of us not by a little bit either.
Here's a little experience my husband and I had with a single payer system. A few days before we traveled to France a few years ago my husband had a small cyst removed from his back and was given instructions about how to care for it. Less than two weeks later it was inflamed and painful. What to do? American friends who live in Paris suggested going to the nearest pharmacy to our hotel and asking someone there to look at it. Apparently this is standard procedure. The pharmacist looked at my husband's lesion, pronounced "pas jolie" (not pretty) and directed us to a small clinic in the next block. So at 3 in the afternoon we walked in, explained the problem and were sent upstairs to a clinic. We paid 20 euros and sat down to wait. In less than an hour my husband was seen by a brisk woman physician who wrote a prescription for an antibiotic and some cream or something. We went back to the pharmacy, made our purchase and were on our way. All this took no more than 2 hours and was within 3 blocks of our hotel.
Anybody know where you can get that kind of prompt inexpensive service away from home? As far as I know the French aren't clamoring for Aetna and Blue Cross and Cigna etc etc etc to come help them out.
