Who You Calling "Socialized Medicine?"

... researchers at Dartmouth Medical School have estimated that Medicare purchases $60 billion in useless services every year.

    One of the chief  reasons health care is so expensive is that so much of it is bought and paid for by the same government that buys those thousand dollar toilet seats we've heard so much about.  It takes a very large leap of faith to believe that letting the government confiscate that part of health care that is still controlled by the market will somehow make doctors and medicine less expensive.  (Leave considerations of quality of service for another day.) 
    All you need to know on this matter was summed by P.J. O'Rourke in this immortal line:

"If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free."