VA is Socialized Medicine; Medicare is Single-Payer

Steve Benen, of all people, completely fucked this up on maddowblog today.

 

For the record, before this criminal stupidity becomes a fucking meme:

 

Single-payer health care is a system in which one payer - the government - acts as the insurer and reimburses private doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, nursing homes, etc., for the cost of giving you health care.  This is Medicare. Private doctors treat you, and the government pays the bill, just like an insurance company.

 

Socialized medicine is a system in which doctors and other health-care workers all work directly for the government. Instead of getting payments from an insurance company or a single-payer insurer like Medicare or the Canadian government, doctors and other health care workers get salaries from the government.  This is the Veterans Affairs health care system, which - ask any veteran - is stupendously awesome.

 

But Medicare is just like any other health insurance system - it's just that the insurer happens to be the federal government.

 

Oh, and it's also way cheaper, more effective and more efficient that any privatized system out there.