OK, I'm Only Going to Say This Once...

Drop the illegal aliens and people who can afford health insurance but don't want it, then take the 8-10 million who are left and add them to the current Medicaid program, DONE! For cost savings: Tort/liability reform, de-link health insurance from employment, i.e. portability, make health savings accounts available to everyone, make tax deductibility for premiums available to everyone and allow cross-state competition. That's all we need to do. And get the Feds out of the picture!

Doctor, Heal Thyself

(Responding to an emergency room physician letter-to-the editor asking Obama and the feds to provide more funds for emergency rooms to become the safety net for people needing basic medical care who do not have health insurance)
The federal government lacks the constitutional authority and power to fund or manage emergency rooms (not to mention that is is busted, it has no money). They are a horribly ineffiencient and expensive avenue for delivering family medicine to the needy. The feds have already made a wreck of the health care system and any further meddling by them will only greatly worsen the situation. Let's clean up the tort system, get malpractice premiums and product liability costs down and reduce the union driven cost of labor. Give people portable medical savings accounts which unties insurance from employment. Finally, relink payment between the actual consumer (patient) with the provider so that people can shop for insurance and shop for care to find the best care for the best price. Let the market actually work and get the artificial, inflationary constraints of government out of the equation. For those that still need help with basic medical care let the states figure out the best way to help deliver it, but not through emergency rooms.