Familiarizing Myself with Unfamiliar Terms

Dear Mr. President,

Good morning. I am trying to become more educated with some of the terms that I am hearing for the first time. You are responsible for this interest and I want to thank you. This morning I am roaming through different websites trying to inform myself about single-payer health care and public option. I had never heard these terms before your administration and I believe now is the time to understand the definition of these emerging “household” phrases. Where have I been?

Here all along ( all along defined as the amount of time since I heard the phrase- all of two months- and now) I thought single-payer health care referred to the patient, a single-patient paying. But in fact it refers to the fund that pays for the patient's care. I go to the doctor and the doctor receives payment from one fund no matter who his patient is. I sit in the waiting room with a number of people and we all receive services and the payment for those services is from one fund. There is not a myriad of different papers for the secretary to fill out reflecting each patients' different insurance companies, just one.

I realize that there is more to this than what I am describing but am I on the right track? So, now the question is where is the source of the money coming from that feeds this single- fund? Is it taxes, or money that would have been spent on the patient's health insurance premiums?So, the money is coming from the government but it's not being paid to government workers, correct? That would be socialism, correct?

Is this something that could really work? Is the government capable of efficiently running something like this? I am praying that clarity will be given to you as you plow through the many issues you face.

May God bless you, Mr. President!
Sincerely,

Mrs. Burkholder