We can stop arguing about it now and sit back and see who is right. Do you want a concrete example of the free market? Look at veterinary medicine. Drugs, diagnostics and procedures are a small fraction of the price of the same thing for humans. And no cute comments about sanitary conditions, etc. That doesn't apply to drugs and x rays. The primary difference is that the consumer pays for his own vet bills, while someone else pays for his health bills. When someone else pays, there is no incentive to be a smart consumer. This is the root of the problem that nobody wants to talk about. Of course prices are high in America! They can be, and nobody really cares because someone else is paying. It only matters if you're outside of the corrupt system. Get rid of that, and you'd have market competitive prices. This "solution" is simply to make sure everyone is part of the corrupt system -- it doesn't deal with the root cause of the corruption.

Go to an optometrist: if you have insurance, an exam is $250 (someone else is paying), if you don't it's $80 (what the market will bear).

I will make some predictions:

1. This will be a far worse intrusion into liberty than even the Patriot Act. You will see many, many more bills like the absurd New York salt ban bill. All in the name of "public health" and "lower healthcare costs". Now that the government is paying, like any good parent, they now have the right to tell you how to live healthily.

2. McDonalds will become a target and be forced to change their practices, despite the fact that they make a product that people like and want, and nobody is forced to buy it. No matter! The government can't be asked to pay for all of the downstream consequences of this unhealthy food. McDonalds is the new Phillip Morris, poor bastards.

3. Speaking of Phillip Morris, you will see an all-out offensive to completely ban tobacco products.

4. Etc. more of the same. Welcome to the Therapeutic State. You now have your government daddy who will happily force everyone to live healthily.

5. There will be practical considerations, too, like government specifications on exactly which tests and treatments doctors can prescribe. The doctor will not have the authority to make the right decision. This has already happened with the equally absurd war on drugs, with many doctors being scared to prescribe effective levels of pain medications due to federal government oversight.

I'm done. Let's see what happens. Those who refuse to learn from history...

Jim