DOVER, Del.- The Affordable Care Act requires people to pick an insurance company and have health insurance, but one Delaware lawmaker wants to take things a step further and move to a single payer health care system.
Rep. John Kowalko, D-Newark, said he can get more Delawareans insured and it would be cheaper if the state moves to single payer health care.
"Our single-payer health care system as devised, has numbers that are cheaper than the numbers that will be in any kind of system of taxes or fines or anything imposed by a government for health care mandates," he said.
He recently introduced House Bill 392, which would move Delaware to a single-payer system. Kowalko claims switching over to the single-payer system will boost the state's economy.
"The economics of a single-payer system at a lower cost for access to health care makes an economy thrive," he said.
But Sen. Colin Bonini, R-Dover South, isn't buying the idea that single-payer health care for everyone will cost less.
"You can't cover more people and have it cost less," he said. "If I'm giving more benefits to more people at a higher level it has to cost more. So single-payer is no question going to cost more."
Single-payer health care will not be voted on during this legislative session. Kowalko said he introduced the bill now to get a headstart on the next session in January.
