In Sunday’s Washington Post, Jacob Hacker wrote,

getting the government more involved in health care would actually reduce costs, improve quality and bolster the U.S. economy — which helps explain why public insurance is the secret weapon in both of the leading Democratic candidates’ plans. If socialized medicine means doing what our public-insurance programs and other nations’ health systems do to control costs, expand coverage and improve the quality of care, it’s high time for a little socialization.

Meanwhile, John Goodman summarizes the results of Sherry Glied’s NBER working paper.

Based on an analysis of data from 20 developed countries, she concludes:

There is no general relationship between the way in which countries pay for health care and their ability to control costs. Public v. private financing, general revenue v. payroll taxes, third-party v. out-of-pocket spending – nothing seems to matter very much.

He has more at the link.