Opinion: Single Payer Is The Solution, But Can We Afford It? Times-Standard (Eureka, CA) By Patty Harvey Health care today is expensive. Can we provide it to every resident? Who will pay? We have only to look at the rest of the industrialized democracies of the world to see the answer. In other countries, people pay with their taxes, which in turn gives them equitable access to the care they need, that everyone needs at one time or another over a lifetime. In other countries, there are no middlemen making a profit by simply paying (or trying not to pay) the bills.