The Finns do it. The Germans do it. Even the Portuguese and Greeks do it.

Across most of the developed world, single-payer, universally available health care is the norm. Legislators briefly considered single-payer coverage in the United States during the health care debates, but ultimately settled on the hybrid public/private solution that is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

As of this autumn, the health insurance exchanges that are the centerpiece of PPACA will have been live for a year. But the subject of a single-payer system — one in which the government, rather than private insurance companies, pays all health care costs — has not disappeared. Vermont is moving to a single-payer health care delivery, and many other states have coalitions in favor of single-payer plans on either a state or federal level. Both the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have explored the system's potential benefits.