The most underrated argument for single-payer health care

Health-care paperwork is a plague. Let's cure it.

A hospital patient with mounting bills.
(Image credit: Ikon Images / Alamy Stock Photo)

If there's one constant in modern American life, it's paperwork and bills — and it's rarely worse than it is for health care. If you need some medical procedure, you are virtually guaranteed several hours of tedious form-filling, made much worse by the knowledge that if you mess up, your insurance might not cover it, and the provider will take you for all you've got.

Eradicating this needless anxiety is perhaps the most underrated argument for Medicare for all. Universal health care would make living in American society tremendously simpler and less stressful. Even for upper-middle-class people who would pay stiffly higher taxes, the price would be well worth it.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.