For the citizen, none. For the insurance companies, they get forced signups.
> Does the lack of a large private insurance market in countries with government-provided health insurance cause lots of inefficiencies and waste?
The US spends the most of any nation on health care. The US is the only western nation with increasing infant and maternal mortality rates.
Actually, that's false. I can assure you that having lived in Canada and having moved to the US because of health care, having options beyond "deal with it" when not getting any sort of care or service is wonderful. Single-payer is great if you are actually getting the care you need. But when it fails, you are left with little to no alternative.
What's worse is that because of the perception that single-payer is so great, people don't really push for real solutions to solve its many problems. People would rather stick their head in the sand and ignore the very real problems, pretending everything is ok.
Until then, we happily live here in the US where we get more services for less than what it would have cost in Canada.
Which has no role in the care my children receive.
> When some asshole sucker punches you and breaks your jaw, I'd rather be in Canada where getting it fixed is affordable.
Within the context of my comment, the US provided $0 and -2 week while Canada offered $30k+. and a 1.5 year wait.