Ultimately, any health care system that relies on "free market forces" to keep costs in check is doomed.
As discussed in an exchange above, health care is simply not a commodity responsive to the "free market." Nobody decides "how much" health care they need. Everybody needs a basic level of preventative care. Some get sick. Some have accidents. When they do, they need the health care they need. Period. "Buying" health care is not like buying a car. (Or, as I like to put it, no healthy person wakes up one morning and thinks, "I want to start injecting myself with Enbrel. I know it's expensive, but I'm worth it!"
Health care, like education, is one of those things that we need to figure out as a nation. We aren't dong the best job on public education, but at least it is a given that you cannot have a functional democratic government unless everyone has equal access to a basic level of education. Health care is just as fundamental, if not MORE. Education is of little use if you are dead.
We agree in principle on the need for public education, but we are still struggling with the many questions ("what is a basic level of education?" "What's a fair salaries for teachers?" and so on.) Sooner or later I think we may "get it" that paying for education primarily through local property tax is not working, and that we need to have a "broader base" if we want to ensure any level of consistency. But that is another topic.
Anyway, I firmly believe that we will reach a consensus that health care, like education, is something we must provide for ourselves through our tax dollars. We would reach that consensus a hell of a lot sooner if the Democratic Party establishment made a concerted effort to make the case. When we do finally "get it" -- that it violates the principles on which this nation was founded NOT to have a national, public, health care system, it won't necessarily be all sweetness and light. We'll struggle with all sorts of questions for a long time. "What are fair prices to pay physicians? Do we subsidize physician's education? What preventative services should be built in to help keep people as healthy as possible (and thereby save money)? What about research for drugs? Should we subsidize research at public institutions to "compete" with private pharma? What level of profit for private pharm are we willing to subsidize with our public dollars?" Fortunately, there are lots of models "out there" that we can follow. We are not starting from scratch. We can design a system that takes the best from those that already exist.
The other posts on public v. private (11, 15, 19)
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