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Well, I was thinking a bit longer term. We are going to a single payer system (maybe with intermediaries as a fig leaf to keep the insurance companies happy, maybe not). We are going to a single payer system because that is the only politically aesthetic way to ration health care. That way, the US can get down the percentage of its GDP it spends on health care closer to the figure in socialized Europe.

And there you have it.

PS, as for taxing the "rich" the AMT is no slouch. It is beginning to eat me alive. I am learning all about "private activity" bonds. Alas, there is no escape in a high income tax state like California. It must be hell in New York City.

Well, I was thinking a bit longer term. We are going to a single payer system (maybe with intermediaries as a fig leaf to keep the insurance companies happy, maybe not). We are going to a single payer system because that is the only politically aesthetic way to ration health care.

I think a great deal of political blood will be spilt in pursuit of that aesthetic.

That way, the US can get down the percentage of its GDP it spends on health care closer to the figure in socialized Europe.

If that was the stated Big Solution from the outset, we'd be better off outlawing all forms of medical insurance and government assistance. Medical spending as a percentage of GDP would plummet at a rate far faster than the value of the care and services provided.
Not that I'd go that route, but I don't see it as any less oppressive than a single-payer plan.
More government meddling isn't the solution to problems created by government meddling. As long as we have the income tax, 100% deductible MSAs that allow for spending on health insurance are the way to go. User or private charity pays, that we may get the government out of the business at which it is singularly and wastefully inept: compassion.

Single payer won't happen in your lifetime so nothing to worry about there. Single payer requires the alignement of four stars, a democratic house, congress and executive and a willing part of the electorate that votes.

Not gonna happen in the near future. Tax increases on the "rich" such as the medicaid portion of your paycheck are much more likely as is extending the SS tax to all earned income.

There are ways around it but it would take a radical shift to accomplish. The single best way is to disengage employment and health care in order to put competition into the health provider market place.

At any rate, those are my feelings on the subject.