host: david gallagher email us some questions. he asks if it is true that a portion of every health care dollar goes to an insurance company. the second question is why not a single payer system? guest: i am not certain about the 43 cents out of every dollar. i do know there has been good work done by dartmouth university that estimates that easily 30% of health-care spending is what they call pure waste. it may be administrative. a lot of it is unnecessary tests and procedures. we hear a lot about going to one doctor and they take an x-ray. then you get sent on to a specialist. the x-ray may not have made it to the specialist. the specialist may not think it is good enough. they do another one. it is this sort of duplication and replication of tests and procedures that add to a lot of the health care costs. dartmouth says that could be 30% waste. host: this next tweet says that single-payer is the best. they say their canadian relatives are very happy. guest: absolutely. i hear from many people in canada and europe. i lived in me