Stephen Murphy’s opinion piece in the Aug. 25 Sunday Telegram (“Hospital horror story a symptom of a more serious disease“) describes well the problems plaguing community hospitals, especially those in rural areas. A single-payer health care system would alleviate many of these problems.

In a single-payer system, hospitals would negotiate with the government annual or biennial global budgets that would cover all hospital expenses over a given time. These budgets would provide stable funding and reflect actual costs of running a hospital, taking into account its historical expenses and its projected needs, including optimal staffing.

Global budgeting would eliminate administrative costs associated with claims and billing, end the problem of uncompensated care and eradicate inequities in reimbursement among Medicaid, Medicare, private insurance and self-pay patients.

Murphy gives special attention to many problems associated with Medicare Advantage plans administered by private insurance companies. In a single-payer system, there would be no Medicare Advantage plans.

Everyone realizes our health care system is broken. Its problems are legion. Beyond those outlined in Murphy’s op-ed, there are, to name a few, provider shortages that lead to long waits for care; insurance plans with such high deductibles that people end up paying for all their care out of pocket; and mountains of medical debt (the number one cause of bankruptcy in America).

We remain the only developed nation without some form of universal health care. There are a number of ways to achieve this, but a single-payer system would be the simplest, least expensive and fairest system for patients, providers and hospitals.

David Jolly
Penobscot