Why do you believe what you believe, concerning your position on health care?

So if there aren't enough physicians to go around only certain people should get to see physicians every time and others never at all?

I understand that in debate one will always assume the other individual is simply an awful person. Aside from a hardcore, emotionally detached economist, I don't think anyone would agree with your statement.

I won't make comments on what we should do about healthcare in the short run. I simply don't know. However, in the long term, perhaps the focus needs to be on improving the medical and nursing careers in order to attract more people to the professions. No matter what new regulation decides on the billing side of healthcare, we will still have problems from lack of care if we have a lack of providers. What do I think should be done to help the long-term?
Maybe a national tort reform for malpractice litigation.. particularly for ER situations where the physician is working with little to no medical history.

It's obvious healthcare is in trouble, but I (along with many others) don't think a universal healthcare system is the answer.

Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to imply that you are an awful person at all. (If we were talking in person you would have understood that from my tone of voice but I guess I wasn't able to communicate that in writing!) I was just following your statement to what I thought was its logical conclusion. I really am interested in understanding points of view other than my own and am willing to change my position when presented with some really good reasons that make sense from both the rational and the ethical point of view.

You said:
Can you explain your statement a little more, to help me understand why you think universal coverage through a national health care plan would be less equitable and preferable? (Of course I am coming from a fundamental premise that equitable is necessarily preferable - I recognize that's an assumption to think everyone shares that priority.)

In terms of addressing the physician shortage, what do you think of the National Health Service Corps?
http://nhsc.hrsa.gov/index.htm
Personally I think it would need to provide more than $50K in scholarship/loan repayment in exchange for 2 years of service to make it attractive enough, but it would be better to put more funding into this existing program than continue to deal with the shortage by importing labor.