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But about five years ago, things changed. Goulden was diagnosed with chronic liver disease and as he watched his insurance premiums skyrocket, he said he realized why he had never before had a problem with the company - he had never been sick.
"They pushed me out," Goulden said. "I faced the possibility of losing everything I had worked for."
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"People worry about these death panels and a government rationing of care," Michael said. "They worry that a single-payer system eliminates their freedom of choice, but a single-payer actually gives more choice. Right now you are locked into a network of providers and can only get what they give you, anyway."
He said it is only logical to take a good look at which procedures work and which do not before paying for them, and the decision to do so in other countries has not hurt the health of its citizens.
Under a single-payer system, those who can afford experimental or elective procedures can always pay for those themselves or purchase additional private insurance. Health care in the U.S is already essentially rationed, he said, but it is rationed according to income level, as opposed to quality and need.
"We can't afford to pay for everything for everybody," Michael said, "and whether insurance companies ration it for their own profit or the government does it is a matter of semantics."