[HM2Viking]

From TPM cafe: (emphasis added)

All of which turns back to the basic point that when you're talking about universal health care you're not really talking about increasing the aggregate resources poured into American health care. There's already tons of money being spent on it. You're talking about redistributing the spending somewhat from richer to less-rich people and altering the path through which the money flows. If you believe (as I do) that a government-run insurance pool could realize significant savings vis-a-vis a series of private sector ones, then I think there's plenty of reason to be optimistic about ability to pay. The significant financial challenge has to do with covering the bills for old people, but that challenge exists one way or another thanks to Medicare (and the basic reality that senior citizens are largely uninsurable in the private sector) and has relatively little to do with whether or not we can afford to bring universal coverage to the under-65 crowd.

I think that this argument certainly has some merit. (As for large efficient Government pools think of Tricare, VA system, Federal Employees Plan, Social Security-all of which achieve significant economy both due to bargaining power and size efficiency.)