FOXNEWS - Sen. Bernie Sander’s plan to move to a single-payer health care system was revealed on Wednesday.
"This is a pivotal moment in American history," Sanders wrote in a New York Times op-ed.
Under his plan, Sanders said "every family in America would receive comprehensive coverage, and middle-class families would save thousands of dollars a year by eliminating their private insurance costs as we move to a publicly funded program."
Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Kamala Harris, D-Calif. – two prominent women thought to be potential 2020 presidential contenders – are co-sponsors of Sanders’ "Medicare for All" bill, as are other Senate Democrats.
And former Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., seen as the Affordable Care Act’s architect, told NBC News last week that “the time has come” for single-payer.
With the ObamaCare debate continuing in the U.S., popularity for the European-style health care model of single-payer has gained more traction, especially among more progressive Democrats.
Some states have already tried – and failed – to implement such a system, in which the government serves as the sole payer for health care costs. Like the current health care law and recent GOP proposals to overhaul it, single-payer plans are controversial.
Here is a look at what single-payer health care is, and how it compares to other models.
What is single-payer health care?
The term "single-payer health care" denotes that only one entity bears the financial responsibility of health care – the government. Under this system, the government would solely be responsible for covering health care costs.
“The basic idea of single-payer is to cover everybody with a single government program, and that program would basically cover all the doctors and hospitals,” Dr. Adam Gaffney told Fox News.
Gaffney is an instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and practices pulmonary and critical care medicine at Cambridge Health Alliance.
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