But it boils down to a few simple principles in terms of this current debate:

1.  You can decide how to spend your own money better than the government can. .(loosely translated from duuhbya) Maybe so in some cases (for instance the shift to higher quality, better mileage cars/trucks from foreign automakers by even patriotic bushinites), but before social security and medicare stepped in many older people were left to die in miserable poverty  They "chose" to spend their meager wages on survival rather than save for medical treatment and retirement.

2.  Employing prevention and seeking treatment before a condition or injury gets to a critical stage saves tons of money in the long run.

3.  Paying for insurance throughout your lifetime makes miniscule monthly payments enough to pay for full coverage.

4.  Information technology that eliminates mistakes, wasteful multiple procedures and testing, and fraudulent billing

5.  Private inasurance devotes 30% of your premiums to profit and administrative costs.  Medicare takes only 4% for administrative costs.

6.  Most health problems, in terms of cost, are due to personal choices, how much stress we have in our lives, how we eat, wether or not we get exersize, wether we indulge in tobacco, alchohol, or other drugs.

Think about how health care ought to be organized, given these principles.  And realize that if only people who were sick or injured pay insurance costs, that would not be insurance. 

In other words, healthy youngsters (and in fact everyone who is uninsured) who do not purchase health insurance and use the emergency room or walkin clinic, leaving taxpayers with the bill, are getting a free ride. that free ride is not free.  It costs 500 bucks for a sniffle.  A visit that would cost 100 dollars for an insured patient.

In fact the 100 dollar visit might prevent multi-thousand dollar hospital stays and procedures.

So collect premiums from everyone, with taxpayers chipping in 30 or 40 dollars a piece for those below the poverty line, pool the money, administer it with 4% overhead, like medicare does, and everyone will be covered for a fraction of the present cost.

It's the only system that makes financial sense.  And actually reduces cost while boosting coverage and quality of coverage with information technology and prevention.  In this model the system eventually saves the most money by investing in prevention.