Yes, single-payer would be the best system.  However, the opinion piece does not focus enough on the cost control issue.  The managing entity needs to sets firm universal limits on charges for medical service and maximum hourly compensation rates for medical providers.  The single-payer management entity needs also to control medical and nursing school output with the ability to commission new schools as needed to provide adequate supply.  Also, medical training should be subsidized heavily to attract a broader range of students, i.e. outside the rich class that goes into medicine not to heal but to become richer.  The medical industry with fight to death to prevent a revamping of the system, but such revamping is in the interest of all Americans.  Capitalism does not work in the case of a vital service and with constrained competition controlled by the industry itself.