I am not sure about this. Government healthcare has longer wait times, less flexibility, less quality due to reduced talent levels, and less incentive for innovation. I absolutely hate dealing with the government healthcare workers who think they’re above patients - some aren’t just rude but abusive, which I have direct knowledge of (at least in parts of Europe and Asia).
I do think the US healthcare system is expensive and sometimes fraudulent (overcharging for supplies, extra billing codes, etc). But we can fix these things with tweaks like forcing transparent pricing for healthy competition, creating transparency and consequences for billing or Medicare fraud, and other such ideas. I don’t think it requires as big a change as a single payer system.
Transparent pricing/competition is not going to move the needle. The overwhelming majority of costs come from a small percentage of people (80% of costs from 20% of people) whose overall medical spending is so high that they are far beyond any notion of shopping. Those people are well beyond their OOP Max and not even responsible for the costs anymore, and have serious conditions where any incentive to shop is basically non-existent anyway.
We also have gobs of data showing that people associate price with quality and often don't want to be price-conscious consumers in the first place (the classic "if your kid gets cancer are you going to the cheapest cancer treatment center, or looking for the best?" You will pay the same 10k OOP max either way). The types of health care that could be price-sensitive are a tiny percentage of overall spending.
I do think the US healthcare system is expensive and sometimes fraudulent (overcharging for supplies, extra billing codes, etc). But we can fix these things with tweaks like forcing transparent pricing for healthy competition, creating transparency and consequences for billing or Medicare fraud, and other such ideas. I don’t think it requires as big a change as a single payer system.