The greatest drawback, as I see it, to the US system is this: Currently, 160M Americans are covered by employer sponsored coverage. The people most in need of

The greatest drawback, as I see it, to the US system is this: Currently, 160M Americans are covered by employer sponsored coverage. The people most in need of 'single-payer' are the unfortunates who don't have employer-sponsored health cover (160M is less than half the US population); those out of work, whether 'retired' or 'not employed just right now'; those who are physically unable to work because of bad health or past injuries; etc. Single-payer covers everybody, and removes the cause of bankruptcies because of tens (or hundreds) of thousands of dollar hospital debts. There's no way I could have afforded my triple bypass surgery including 2 days in ICU on my 22-hours-a-week employment classified as 'casual work' if I was under the US health scheme. That surgery came with a mere two-week warning, I went to have an angiogram 'just to check things' and was told "We're not sure if we'll let you go home today!"