The traditional Medicare program allocates only one percent of total spending to overhead compared with six percent when the privatized portion of Medicare, known as Medicare Advantage, is included, according to a study in the June 2013 issue of the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law.

The one percent figure includes all types of non-medical spending by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services plus other federal agencies, such as the IRS, that support the Medicare program, and is based on data contained in the latest report of the Medicare trustees.

Guess who is opposed to introducing a single payer bill into the California legislature this session?

There are the usual suspects — the insurance companies and the Republicans.

But then you have, also in opposition — the California Democratic Party — including Governor Jerry Brown and Senator Mark Leno, the author of the California single payer bill for the past two sessions — and the California Nurses Association.