I work on a government contract. I've seen how much money the government can waste in general and I think this is the wrong solution.
If we do go to a government based system we need a way to make the government accountable for KEEPING costs down while still providing the best care they can to everyone. I don't think that just saying "let the government handle it" is the right mentality. We must first establish a mission for that (emerging) department of the government and keep them to it.
Also, how can we switch to a national health service, while we are over budget by about 40%? Sure, let's do it, but that would mean a reduction of government elsewhere by 40% first and THEN we could being to take other parts away while adding a national health service...
There are dozens of universal healthcare systems to study and implement against. Most are single-payer (France, the UK, Canada) but some are based on heavily regulated mandatory private insurance (Germany and Switzerland, IIRC; I could be wrong).
In every case, the government says "this is the price that you are allowed to charge for service X", which is based on cost-to-deliver plus a reasonable overhead (like the Medicare price in the U.S.).
Eliminate the for-profit healthcare crap like was described in this article and most of the American overspending on health services goes away. Not all of it, but most of it. As a side-effect, the health care system will become more efficient and could finally become an effective partner in providing health security (both for individuals and for the nation; having a functional health care system is arguably important for national security in an age where biologicals are a fear).
If we do go to a government based system we need a way to make the government accountable for KEEPING costs down while still providing the best care they can to everyone. I don't think that just saying "let the government handle it" is the right mentality. We must first establish a mission for that (emerging) department of the government and keep them to it.
Also, how can we switch to a national health service, while we are over budget by about 40%? Sure, let's do it, but that would mean a reduction of government elsewhere by 40% first and THEN we could being to take other parts away while adding a national health service...