Paul Krugman compares the Senate bill with single-payer and concludes that the Senate bill is a clunky simulation of single-payer. In a good way.
In short, he calculates that in a single-payer system, you have high taxes for the rich, low taxes for the poor and middle class, and equal benefits for everyone. In the Senate bill, you have (relatively) higher taxes for the rich, lower taxes for the poor and benefits that are balanced using subsidies. Even Steven.
Also, he continues to make the same point I'm trying to make:
So how anyone can call a plan to spend $200 billion a year on Americans in need a defeat for progressives is a mystery. [...]
There’s lots of work to be done, work that may eventually culminate in a true, not simulated, single payer system. But even in this form, we’re looking at something that will make America a more just, more secure nation.
Right on.