Single-payer healthcare is a type of universal healthcare in which the costs of essential healthcare for all residents are covered by a single public system. In a single-payer healthcare system, rather than multiple competing health insurance companies, a single public or quasi-public agency takes responsibility for financing healthcare for all residents. Here are some key features of a single-payer healthcare system:

• Coverage: All residents of the country would be covered for all medically necessary services, including doctor, hospital, preventive, long-term care, mental health, reproductive health care, dental, vision, prescription drug, and medical supply costs.

• Financing: One entity, a single payer, collects all healthcare fees and pays for all healthcare costs. Premiums would disappear, and patients would no longer face financial barriers to care such as co-pays and deductibles.

• Delivery of care: The delivery of care remains largely in private hands. Individuals may still choose where they receive care.

Proponents of a single-payer system argue that it would address several problems in the U.S. healthcare system. Universal health coverage would be a major step towards equality, especially for uninsured and underinsured Americans. Overall expenses and wasteful spending could be better controlled through cost control and lower administrative costs, as evidenced in other countries. Furthermore, a single-payer system has more incentive to direct healthcare spending toward public health measures. However, transitioning to a single-payer system may entail significant changes in the sources and extent of coverage, provider payment mechanisms, and financing of healthcare services in the current U.S. healthcare system.