What is single payer health care?

What is the best form of single payer health care system, and what country has a system most like this ideal?

• Some details to consider: Who should be covered? (Citizens only?  Legal residents?  Undocumented immigrants?)  And if you don’t think everyone should be covered, who should pay for the care of those who can't afford it? What should be covered? (Hospitals and physicians, yes, but what about dental, pharmacy, nursing home care?) How much, if anything, should people have to pay out of pocket for care? Should it be a pure single payer, with only one payer allowed? Or should people have the option to buy health care another way if they want to access care faster or want a service that is denied by the single payer? Should the government own most or all of the hospitals and clinics, and employ the doctors?

• Answer:

  Who should be covered? Citizens and legal residents. And yes, I'm saying that uninsured illegal immigrants will die in the streets. So is everyone else who wants single payer and universal care. Illegals dying in the streets is one of the costs of this kind of health care. You can't demand a service like that from the government and then force them to provide it to anyone who makes it across the border. Who should pay for the care of those who can't afford it? There won't be any care to pay for, unless some charitable organizations decide to take this on themselves. Everyone who is supposed to be here will get care. Everyone who isn't is on their own. Dental and prescription drugs should be covered. Long term care would be whatever is the most cost effective way to provide quality care for that patient. Maybe that's a nursing home, maybe it's a visiting nurse. But you won't get to make that choice. Cheapest option that meets the requirements wins. Again, that's the way it has to work. No out of pocket expenses. We're already having the money taken out of our check. Thinking about it, it would have to be pure single payer. Yes, everyone should have the right to get better care if they can afford it. But I'm thinking in terms of providers - private insurance would be able to pay better, since they could charge a lot, so the availability of private insurance would make providing quality care to people without it difficult. So no private insurance. Rich people would go out of the country to get what they want, but rich people are going to do what they want anyway. If every healthcare dollar comes from the government, then the government basically owns all the hospitals and employs all the doctors anyway, don't they?