In last week’s Sound Off, some writers seem confused about how New York Health Act might affect their finances. Even though the bill would technically be a “tax increase,” a single-payer system would actually save us lots of money for three main reasons:

1) Employers currently pay tens of thousands of dollars per year per employee for private insurance, so directing some of that money to the single-payer system instead of high-cost private insurance will leave more money for workers and small businesses.

2) Up to 20 percent of what insurance companies charge goes to administrative costs and profit. Single-payer would cost closer to 1 percent in overhead, like public Medicare. So the total costs for care will be less.

3) New Yorkers making over 400,000/year would pay their fair share for health care, so that people making under 400,000/year (98 percent of us!) can pay far less. For example, everyone making under 50k will pay ZERO for health care.

Read the full letter at the Daily Star here.