The leftist wing of our government has been drooling over this idea for years. Try and imagine the power the government would have over your life if they could legitimately claim that anything that affected your health was now rightfully in their jurisdiction. After all, society is footing the bill, right?

The problem is that the market system in health care was short-circuited a long time ago. People not only don't pay their own bills, with either the government or insurance covering things, but they get downright indignant over having to even come up with a small co-pay.

When I was a kid, health insurance was for serious things, like hospitalizations. Now, it's expected to cover every damn thing you can think of.

The only thing that makes any kind of insurance work is the idea that not everyone who owns a policy is going to make a huge claim. In fact, insurance companies bet that a lot of people will make no claims at all. What would fire insurance be like if every policy holder's house routinely burned down? What would car insurance cost if it covered car washes, gasoline, new tires, oil changes, spark plugs, upholstery tears, and burnt-out headlights?

This problem can't be laid just at the feet of the government or pro-socialization leftists. People have gotten an odd idea that health care should never cost anyone anything. It isn't going to be easy retraining them. I don't have any easy solutions for bringing market forces back into this. Maybe health savings accounts, but that's a small finger for a big hole in the dam.