By Ozzy Hayes

There’s an extraordinarily small number of statements from Orrin Johnson’s column, “What the government pays, the government controls”, that I agree with, that number being precisely one: It’s time for Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto (along with Rep. Jacky Rosen and Rep. Ruben Kihuen) to take a firm position on single-payer health care. Where Orrin and I differ is that he hopes the aforementioned officials will stand in opposition to single payer, while I hope that they will give single-payer nothing less than their unwavering support.

Single-payer health care does not mean that the government “controls” our health care. It means the government provides our health care through socialized means. The most essential difference between private health care and insurance and a single-payer system is that we, the people, cannot vote out corporate officers. We cannot vote out insurance companies, or vote for measures that optimize the efficiency of health care. Privately controlled health care does not give us the option to hold companies accountable, or to have a direct democratic influence on the way in which health care functions. Private insurance subjugates the American public to whatever brings insurance companies the most profit.

The Affordable Care Act, more popularly known as Obamacare, fails for this precise reason. The ACA does not provide health care for Americans; it simply invites private insurance companies into a government-subsidized pool. This results in the continued corporate control of health care, and America subsequently spends five times more on health care per capita than the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average (an organization made up primarily of countries with single-payer systems). Our ridiculously high health-care spending doesn’t even contribute to our health — America has a lower life expectancy than Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, despite spending far more.

In similar fashion to Sen. Ted Cruz in his televised debate with Sen. Bernie Sanders, Orrin points to Canada’s wait lines as the ultimate trump card in the debate on government involvement in health care. What Sen. Cruz, Orrin, and others who cry “Canada” largely ignore — whether by misinformation or bad faith — is that the nation doesn’t have a single-payer health care system, but rather a single-payer health insurance system.

It’s true that the wait lines for health care in Canada are rather atrocious, especially in rural provinces, but that’s no fault of single-payer as Orrin would have you believe. While Canada’s health insurance is socialized, the country’s health care is predominantly privately owned, operated, and distributed. The wait lines in Canada are a result of the country’s above average private sector involvement in its single-payer system, in contrast to the many government owned and operated hospitals and services in the United Kingdom under the National Health Service system. As with the Affordable Care Act, problems with the Canadian health care system stem from its privatized aspects.

Orrin is right that our current health care system doesn’t work the way it should. And Orrin is right that Canada has longer wait lines than is desirable. What Orrin fails to pinpoint is the reason why he’s right about those things: privately owned, free market influence. As Orrin admits, health care is a right, and it’s high time we extend that right to all Americans. I invite Orrin — along with Sen. Cortez-Masto and Reps. Rosen and Kihuen — to recognize the failures of private health care and fully endorse a universal, single-payer health care system.

Ozzy Hayes is a Las Vegas student with a heavy involvement in current events and political, social, and economic issues. An active member of the Democratic Socialists of America, he spends his time as a community organizer and an activist when he's not in school or at work, and is always tweeting for socialism. You can follow his Twitter @yzzoozzy.