the reality of a “single payer” system is not usually that the government pays for everything: public health will keep you alive, but if you want to be comfortable (eg private room, skip a queue: it’s not nice, but private surgeons still exist and use public services) then you can go private either through insurance or paying outright…
insurance usually also covers what we in australia call “extras” and that’s a whole category of private health (ie things not on medicare that everyone gets)… this is things like dental, massage, optical, etc
don’t get me wrong, this is STILL far superior to the shit show in the US, but it’s NOT simpler from a moving parts perspective - it’s MUCH more complex, just every day people neither have to worry about or pay for that complexity most of the time
the reality of a “single payer” system is not usually that the government pays for everything: public health will keep you alive, but if you want to be comfortable (eg private room, skip a queue: it’s not nice, but private surgeons still exist and use public services) then you can go private either through insurance or paying outright…
insurance usually also covers what we in australia call “extras” and that’s a whole category of private health (ie things not on medicare that everyone gets)… this is things like dental, massage, optical, etc
don’t get me wrong, this is STILL far superior to the shit show in the US, but it’s NOT simpler from a moving parts perspective - it’s MUCH more complex, just every day people neither have to worry about or pay for that complexity most of the time
If everyone skips a queue you will get another queue