The problems with healthcare are equal parts demagoguery & monopoly.

• The inequity of Obamacare is that it puts the burden for The Poor on the Middle Class.

• The irony of Universal healthcare is that the Middle Class will have less of it.

• A quick healthcare fix would to be add a Medicare For Anyone option.

• Hospitals should become Primary care providers.

• The VA never “failed,” its exploitation was simply exposed.

• Britain's National Health Service is a great model for the U.S.

• Lowering healthcare costs requires a dagger right in the heart of Capitalism & unions.

• You may get your news somewhere else but take your advice from me, the Wysest Myn in the Wyrld.

It seems unlikely that the solution to lowering the cost of universal healthcare can come through politics, there are simply too many players: doctors, insurers, unions & entrepreneurs, who are complicit in the status quo, as proven by the Obamacare debacle. The reason Obamacare doesn't do cost containment is because the Insurance & Healthcare industries did not want it to; they're the ones who get the money, and they're the ones who run up the costs. But don't just blame self-interested business & unions; patients who expect the best of everything for nothing is a significant part of the problem.

Socializing healthcare would be the best solution with its top-down cost containment; it's worked in other countries, and Medicare is already doing it. A Capitalist solution has not been forthcoming for the simple reason that healthcare is not a voluntary commodity; though not technically monopolistic, traditional market pressures do not apply. Liability issues are also unreasonably avaricious, both on the side of plaintiff attorneys & the insurance companies. And unions use the rhetoric of fairness but their reality is as exploitative as any of the other pigs at the trough.

In the meantime, here is a fait accompli healthcare cost containment strategy: first, make Clinic nonprofit & encourage volunteerism; second, advertise set prices that include everything, including labs & devices; third, frustrate liability claims using legal artifices; forth, prevent unionization; and, most importantly, fly under the radar of vested interests. If it could become fashionable to use “organic” healthcare, perhaps it might just catch on?

The National Health Service, or NHS, is Britain's socialized healthcare. The NHS serves 60% of Britain's population via General Fund taxes, meaning there is no Payroll tax. The buildings are not glass monuments to medicine, but instead plain & unobtrusive, in the local neighborhood where patients can walk to them. Trucks with the specialized equipment, like MRIs, come around to the clinics on scheduled days, so everything is available. Everyone within the clinic's radius is assumed to be a patient, and annual patient contact is automated. All-in-all, the people who use it love it.

My wife & I used the NHS for a year while I studied medicine in Newcastle, England, going to the local clinic several times so I have a feel for what it's like. For example, I received a postcard telling me to come in for an annual checkup: I walked. My clinic was a refurbished brick building from the early 20th Century, homey & non-threatening. For starters, contrary to how it's portrayed in the U.S., there are no significant wait times, maybe 10 minutes. The examination was prompt, professional & efficient; I was out within a half hour. During my visits, I paid close attention to how things worked; what was right, and what was wrong. My conclusion: we need look no further for a model of how the U.S. should operate healthcare. The big question is: are Americans too egotistical for low-key, no fuss, utilitarian healthcare?