My nutshell version of a better heathcare system in the US

Nutshell version- There is government healthcare (I'd get rid of all of it, but since we are looking at realistic solutions rather than my, "pay or die scenario) and there is private healthcare. And the two shouldn't mix.

Government healthcare- Includes Medicare, Medicaid, and VA. There are hospitals set up to care for this. VA hospitals suck, but really that is what the government does. It sucks at whatever it does. So. You have these government hospitals set up, people that would like to remain on Medicare can do so, and the money that they have paid into it goes into the government healthcare fund. As does the VA medical fund, and the Medicaid money allotted by the assclowns in DC. Staffing these places should be Docs fresh out of med school, who will work for 4 years at a salary of 40K, and when they are done with their tour, their medical school bills are paid for. Same with nurses, and other medical staff. Get people off welfare, by training them how to be LPN (I think this is the first step in nursing. takes about 18 months to get certified, these are the nurses that check your blood pressure, can help you to the bathroom), janitors, maintenance, cafeteria, laundry and all the stuff that is required to run a hospital. They get hand me down equipment from private hospitals that get to write off the donations on their taxes. So basically these hospitals are self contained, and the costs are kept to a minimum by trading federal money (money from welfare to now employment) and although the care will not be the best in the country, it would still be some of the best in the world, and nobody is 'left to die". You want the government to take care of you? Here is how the government can take care of you. Create smaller govt clinics that are more numerous to handle all the little BS that costs a fortune when taken to a hospital. Things like colds, flu, eye infections and the like. I hate socialism, but if this is what people want (socialized medicine) than we go ahead and give it to them. As it stands now, they are paying (or not paying) for socialized medicine, but are receiving A+ best in the world, state of the art medical breakthrough miracles. Sorry. You get what you pay for, and this is it.

For the rest of the people who do not wish to partake in the Government Healthcare System, they are not affected at all by the government system. In fact they are in the Private System which is run by private corporations. Insurance companies, hospital systems, doctors, clinics and all are in the free market system. Without government intervention the free market healthcare system will readjust to the government free market, and will raise lower premiums, and the price of services according to the free market. Medical device and pharmaceutical companies will do likewise. Healthcare costs in this country have skyrocketed over the last 40 years largely due to the influence of Medicare and Medicaid. Government only pays about 25-30% of the actual cost of procedures, and visits, so that means the healthcare providers had to make up that money somewhere, so that gouged the regular paying customers (insurance companies) and made the prices go up. Without the government mooching from the Healthcare providers, they can focus on a REAL business model, where profits and loss actually matter, and the competition from others forces the real costs to where they should be.

So basically give those people that want to live on the government teat exactly what they deserve (I'm actually torn on the VA medical system. I would probably keep them separate, double the funding of them {take the money from the other program} since they are really the best of Americans and deserve a hell of lot better care than they are getting right now) and get the government out of the private healthcare business altogether, so that THAT system can thrive and continue to be the best healthcare in the world.