I like Krauthammer generally, but I think he’s off base here. What he foresees happening is very much like the system in place in the Netherlands, where the government mandates coverage through private insurance companies but subsidizes (on a sliding scale according to income) premiums. IIRC about 60% of the population is subsidized to some extent, the rest pay all their premiums out of pocket. In fact, they went to this system in 2006 after scrapping their Canadian and British style system where the government ran the show. So far it hasn’t lead to rationing, or increased costs. In fact, they spend far less than we do per capita for health care and have comparable or even favorable results in nearly every category.

What’s nice about it is your health insurance is completely divorced from your employer, and everyone is free to shop around for their carrier. You don’t have to use whatever your employer picked for you as most people do in the US, nor worry about health insurance when switching jobs. It has lead to intense competition among the insurance companies for business, to the great benefit of the consumer. It’s actually a far more capitalistic system than we have in the US today.

Oh, it’s not a “one size fits all” plan either. Insurance companies set their premiums, not the government. The government only sets minimum levels of coverage, you are free to pay more if you desire more coverage. The additional coverage will not be subsidized though, you will just pay more. And in their system, the government actually pays less of a percentage of health care costs than the US government does today even though everyone is covered.

I know this will be unpopular here (let the down-dinging begin lol) but I really do think this is great model for the US. And it’s actually less socialistic than the current US system is with the massive government-run Medicare and Medicaid programs.

YMMV