The health care debate has flooded the news as Congress attempts to repeal and craft a replacement for the Affordable Care Act — an increase of governmental involvement and regulation albeit considerably less than a single-payer system such as Canada’s. The costs of the law, it seems, have been the impetus for calls to replace it. In fact, enthusiasm for single-payer coverage plummets when people find out the coverage’s costs.

America’s health care system constitutes one-sixth of the nation’s economy. The Affordable Care Act has obvious problems: it is flawed in its conception and basic design, and is failing the American people. The public was not enthusiastic about the Affordable Care Act but got it anyway.

I recently received a letter from a constituent asking two questions: (1) Why is the United States the only advanced, industrialized country in the world without a single-payer health care system; and (2) Why does health care in the United States cost twice as much as that in other countries yet provides lesser results? I will approach these questions the way I do with every issue — with research. Remember, never substitute emotion for scholarship.

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