Re: But the elephant in the room...
One claim was that if the US introduced free-at-point health care for everyone as in the NHS or Canada it would actually save money - because it covers so much of the healthcare anyway but does it at $50/aspirin hospital rates.
There was a bill to allow the VA and DoD to act together and use their buying power to force down the price of drugs they buy as you might do in a free market capitalist country. But it was blocked, seems the army don't pay as many lobbyists as the drug companies.
