From my latest essay:

Overall, I am not persuaded that socialized medicine will prove more efficient in the United States. However, I am not a big fan of the insurance industry as it operates today, and I think that it would be interesting to see an experiment with single payer at a state level.

As it stands, none of the leading Presidential contenders is advocating single payer. Instead, some candidates propose additional government mandates and/or subsidies, while keeping our existing private insurance systems intact. It seems unlikely that this will reduce the cost of providing insurance.

The essay itself is a summary of what I think government can and cannot do about health care. So it is hard to summarize.

The point is to look at the issue realistically. There is a difference between government and a fairy godmother. With fairy godmothers, when you have a problem, all you have to do is wish real hard and the problem goes away. Government does not have that same bibbity-bobbity-boo.