A publicly financed, single-payer health plan modeled on a bill currently pending in the Maryland Legislature, S.B. 206, would assure quality, comprehensive care to everyone in the state without increasing overall health spending.

That’s according to a new report released this week by Gerald Friedman, Ph.D., an economist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Friedman says that by replacing private health insurers in Maryland with a single social insurance trust – a fund that would pay all medical bills, much like Medicare does – Maryland would save $13.2 billion in 2013, enough to pay for truly universal, quality health care.

The new system would create such large efficiencies in the administration of health care that all who are currently uninsured could be covered and everyone else would see their present coverage improve, Friedman said.

For example, there would be no deductibles and no co-payments.

Friedman said by by financing health care with taxes pegged to income, a single-payer system would result in personal savings for the great majority of Maryland residents and businesses.

And by reducing business costs, it would lead to an expansion in employment.

The Maryland Health Security Act 2012 (S.B. 206) would create a one-payer, universal health care system for Maryland that is privately delivered and publicly funded.

The new health system would provide lifelong coverage from birth to death.

Every state resident would have a comprehensive benefits package that covers all necessary medical care including hospital care, outpatient care, mental health, pharmaceuticals, imaging, vision and dental.

Even after expanding comprehensive coverage to the uninsured and the underinsured, total health care spending in Maryland would drop by an estimated 14 percent in 2013, from $54.3 billion to $46.2 billion.

By reducing the cost of health insurance, governments would save moneys used for insuring their public employees. The current debate over funding public employee pensions would be moot, as local county and city governments combined would save an estimated $1 billion in a single-payer system, Friedman said.

Executive summary of the report is here.