Ideas: Universal medical care

Essentially all of the rest of the industrialized world, and a lot of people in the US, think it's a disgrace that we don't have universal medical coverage in this country.  We spend much more per capita or as a fraction of GDP than any other industrialized country, but our overall statistics are pretty bad because the best-in-the-world health care system is only open to people who can pay for it.  I could go on for hours, but I think we can stipulate for the sake of the argument that it needs fixing.  The question is how do we do it, in the real world where somebody has to pay for it?

( thoughts on the subject )