Nobel support for single payer

Here's an excerpt from Amy Goodman's February interview with Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz. You can read the transcript online here.

Amy Goodman: He’s [President Obama] called for universal healthcare, but he does not call for single-payer healthcare.

Joseph Stiglitz: I think that there are some fundamental problems in the efficiency of our healthcare system. And what we’ve seen is that the private healthcare insurers do not know how to deliver an efficient way.

Amy Goodman: Do you support single-payer healthcare?

Joseph Stiglitz: I think I’ve reluctantly come to the view that it’s the only alternative. You know, we’ve tried a lot of other things. And we’ve been—you know, I was in the Clinton administration, and we debated a lot of alternatives, and I’ve watched things as they’ve emerged and, you know, evolved over the last twelve, sixteen years, and I think there’s a growing consensus that the private market exclusion is not going to work.