Talk politics.

Assertion: The main problem with health care is that it does not function as a competitive market consumer good.

{partial?} Solution: There must be a connection between individual choice and services received.

How do we do this?

1. Same tax treatment for individual and employer-based insurance. This is the primary reason for the present ludicrous situation where the quality of your healthcare is determined by your job.

2. National, not state, markets for health policies. Where you live determining your healthcare makes no more sense than where you work determining it.

3. Tort reform. We're all subsidizing victims of medical malpractice. It's tragic if medical error ruins someone's life, but giving them $10 million when it happens is ruining our health system.

4. Transparency in costs. Let people see medical bills and pay them like bills.

5. Remove legal obstacles to high-deductible plans + HSAs. This combination isn't for everyone, but it's good for a lot of people.

Yes, healthcare is vitally important. So are food, clothing, and shelter, yet we don't have single-payer grocery stores, socialized clothing, and everyone in housing projects! We do, however, have food stamps, thrift stores, and the existence of housing projects. This is the model we want for healthcare -- most people are participants in a free market which gives them ample choices, low prices, and high quality goods. A few people, whether by their own bad choices or by bad circumstances outside of their control, cannot afford to participate, and for those people there is a social safety net that pays for their basic care.

One plan for all people isn't going to be great for anyone. The government needs to focus on caring for those who genuinely can't afford healthcare at all, while letting a market-based health system lower prices for everyone... which is not what our healthcare system currently does, due to a lot of perverse incentives the insurance system creates. HMOs encourage doctors not to treat, indemnity policies encourage them to treat unnecessarily, and both encourage consumers to not think about medical care as something with a cost at all, at least not one relevant to their lives. Whether their insurance company is billed $100 or $10,000 makes no difference to them, so the doctors bill $10,000... and then when someone is without insurance, the bill is crushing. If people always cared about price, the prices would be driven down.

This post is mostly due to fishsupreme, just reordered and slimmed down a little.