Free!
The best way to make something expensive is to have the government provide it for free. Once the government is in the market, competition is out the window. So market incentives to cut costs are out the window. When the resource is free to the consumer, he will consume as much of it as he can. And in fact, he will consume much more of the resource than he would have if government was not in the loop. When you have to pay for something, you buy the cheapest and the most efficient and you use it as little as you can.
Cheaper!
Sometimes the government does try to cut costs but since government cost cutting measures have nothing to do with the realities of how much it costs to produce the service, what often winds up happening is you get crappy service. Also, since normal human beings want to make money to have a good life for themselves and their families, you no longer get the cream of the crop providing the service. Since you are no longer paying the doctors well, smart people stop going into medicine. In order to attract more people to become doctors, the medical schools will lower their standards. And the quality of health care will decrease.
Marxist Medicine
Even though the product of socialized medicine would get crappier by the moment, to its consumers, it's still free so they use even more of it. With fewer good doctors and a lot of bad ones spending their time fixing botched surgeries, the system gets overwhelmed. Rationing ensues. The government decides who lives and who dies. The death boards that they lied to you about, come into to being. They will make the lie palatable. End of life care, concern and loving commission. To wit: Die sucker!
Pay Now or Pay Later
The best system would be one with less government intervention-not more. Given the obvious economic realities of government run health care the very smart people advocating it are actually Marxists trying to create a socialist government. They don't actually care about your quality of life but they do want you to be a good communist while you wait in line to die
In the best system you would pay for you own health care. Some have suggested health savings accounts wherein you save money through out the year and you get the money back if you don't use it for health care. If you do need the health care the savings account is tapped.
Why not Insure the Uninsured?
If there are 50 million or so uninsured then let the federal government insure them. For those who have a job let the government charge them the highest possible rate for their premiums. Let the rate be so high that any intelligent person would go out and get his own health care insurance rather than risk being forced into a government one.
There are some even more daring programs where some doctors have already agreed to take less money from their patients if they can forgo all the government paperwork.
Loser Pays
We need loser pays tort reforms to reduce the number of frivolous lawsuits. If you hold a hot cup of coffee between your knees then the spill is your fault, not the fast food restaurant. Cap any lawsuit settlements beyond medical bills to something like $250,000 or less. Lawsuits should be about taking care of medical bills that are caused by medical mistakes. Not getting a pay day because you say your feelings were hurt.