Not all democrats want a single payer system. Many just want the government to offer health care insurance as an alternative to private policies.

Nobody's kidding anyone here. The goal is government control. I've heard the major players talking to their pals and laughing about how the private insurance industry is going up in smoke.

Any nationalized health care system, like medicare, medicaid, the VA, is a health care delivery system, not a "total government control of health care." Doctors are still private businesses. Most hospitals are private. The manufacturers of healthcare products and equipment are private. The difference is how it is all paid for: Out of people's taxes

Nobody's kidding anyone here, either. The ones who pay the bills run the show, and if it's a de facto government monopoly, they will run the whole show. Anybody who thinks otherwise is smoking something.

The same would be true if for some reason all private insurance companies were eliminated except one. It's interesting how people who go into apoplexy over a private monopoly seem to be completely happy with government ones.