The thing that amazes me is that proponents of single payer healthcare ignore respected economists like laffer and Nobel winning economists like Mundell with their proposals. You literally can not add another 10% of gdp to the federal budget without negatively affecting the economy. As much as they try to justify it by saying that it's just a different intermediary in the payment process, in practice it doesnt work that way. It will fall victim to the same pitfalls of all taxation, in that people will find ways to reduce their burden. In a private transaction, people may negotiate to a certain extent but once they have entered into the agreement, the bill is what they pay no questions asked. It's not like when I get my health insurance bill I look for ways to pay less like we do with our taxes.
Until the point where our tax code is simplified to the point where it is flat across the board, people will be incentivized to lower their tax burden. It's as simple as that.
