the wall street journal, that bastion of unfettered socialism, recommends government funded single payer health care.

WSJ.com - The Doctor's Office By BENJAMIN BREWER, M.D.

Government-Funded Care
Is the Best Health Solution

Multiple Insurers, Multiple Plans
Create Expensive, Draining Hassle

[...]

With a single-payer system, there are concerns about waiting times for procedures and not getting access to the "best doctors." These are real issues, but not unsolvable ones. We have these disparities now. Fact is, they are mostly a matter of geography, insurance status and personal wealth.

(hi mom!)

A single-payer system would increase access to care for the uninsured and the underinsured, including the working poor. It would lower total health costs, in part by replacing 50 different state Medicaid programs and umpteen insurers with one system. This approach has the potential to improve quality and lower costs by improving care for chronic illnesses such as diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.

read the whole thing. it's really good, and covers most of the issues that i have either heard or or have thought of. and it's written by someone on the other side of this from me-- i'm a nearly impossible to insure person; he's a doctor fed up with the current system.