[the_gastropod]

I'm sure this was asked in good faith. Increasingly, it seems like this question is not, however. It feels like this dead horse has been beaten into a pulp. Looking only at the government side of the ledger, and ignoring the private-sector savings at this point in time, when there's so much talk about public healthcare, seems willfully obtuse.

The U.S. already spends more on healthcare (by pretty much every measure) than every other developed nation on the planet. Much of this goes to profits of insurance companies, the overhead of having so many parties involved, advertising budgets, etc. Raising taxes to pay for healthcare should result in a net savings for virtually everyone, as these profit-seeking activities are eliminated. The only real debate taking place among economists w/r/t cost is how much of a savings we'll get by moving to a single payer plan.