Why a single-payer health care system is the wrong way to go:

The great majority of universal health-care systems are not single-payer. They allow private coverage into the mix.

Why is that better? For one thing, patients who use private medical services reduce the load on the public system. In New Zealand, for example, private hospitals do more of the common, less invasive procedures, leaving the high-tech care in the publicly run facilities.

Private competition also helps assure quality. Without an alternative, the monopolistic system becomes an “uncontested standard” that may be inferior.

There’s also the freedom argument. People don’t want to be told that they can’t spend their own money on goods that would benefit them — and who can blame them?

Canada and a few others take pride in not asking patients to pay a cent of their health-care costs, but it’s a mistake not to charge user fees. If people don’t have to dig into their own pockets when they use medical services, Walker says, “you find yourself giving universal access to a physician for sniffles and company.”