The 800 pound gorilla in the mix? 35% insurance company profit and “overhead,” more than enough to cover everyone currently without access. A single payer system like Medicare costs under 5% to run (no profit, no advertising, no obscene CEO salaries), and gets payment in the hands of physicians without haggling or endless obstruction by people whose jobs are to prevent, rather than make, payments.

Socialized medicine works well in the UK. It started off awkward and then Margaret Thatcher, and the team of Gordon Brown and Tony Blair refined it. Thatcher had been quite proud of how low was the percentage of GDP that Health care represented as compared to the US.

In the larger challenge of managing the exploding costs of entitlements these kinds of practical solutions are a path to success. With a single payer health care system we can streamline Medicare, Medicaid, Worker's Compensation, Disability, and adjust the expenses to target medical care rather than administration, redundancy, marketing and profit.