Single-payer would be a nightmare for Americans

The Affordable Care Act's insurance exchanges are collapsing. In 40 percent of counties, consumers will have access to just one insurer on the exchange next year. In 47 counties, there will be no insurers on the exchange at all.

More insurers may pull out in the coming weeks. The ones that don't will, in many cases, hike premiums by 40 percent or more.

Americans are frustrated with the exchanges' high costs and limited options. And that frustration is manifesting itself in growing support for a government-run, single-payer healthcare system. Forty-four percent of Americans now favor this approach, according to a recent Morning Consult poll.

Supporters of single-payer claim that it would eliminate wasteful spending and improve the quality of care. The reality is quite different. Single-payer systems ration healthcare, slow the development of life-saving drugs and medical devices, and hamstring economic growth.

Single-payer systems control costs primarily by limiting access to healthcare. In the United Kingdom's National Health Service, 5 million patients will languish on waiting lists for non-emergency surgeries, such as hip replacements, by 2019. The president of the country's emergency room doctors association warned earlier this year that wait times are causing "untold patient misery" and that the NHS is "broken."