http://hub.jhu.edu/2016/10/11/single-payer-health-care-101/

Johns Hopkins experts explain health insurance alternative mentioned during presidential debate

During Sunday’s heated presidential debate, an audience member raised the issue of health care, asking Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump about their plans to bring down costs and to make coverage better.

Both of the candidates’ responses included references to a “single-payer plan.” What does that mean, and could it work in the U.S.? For insight, we turned to experts from Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health.

In a segment of WYPR’s On the Record on Monday morning, Bradley Herring, an associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Bloomberg School, explained what a single-payer system is and how it works.

“The simplest way to think about a single-payer system is one in which the government is the single payer for all health care services for all citizens,” Herring said.

Countries around the world have successfully adopted single-payer health systems. An obvious example—and the one Trump pointed to in the debate—is Canada.