lower payouts now than private insurance makes in most cases, so Docs can justify taking Medicare patients more easily (than even lower payout Medicaid) because there as so many private insurance payers of offset those lower payouts. But when we're all on the same payout system, and Govco needs to control costs by lowering payouts and delaying/cutting services (which is inevitable given our debt and spending habits), well, we'll be in a similar boat Medicaid patients find themselves in now. Medicare is used as a misnomer, simply because, for the subsidies they get thanks to private insurance, it's more palatable to the average voter because many seniors like what they get from Medicare in the current set up.

I agree completely with your point about paying for it, which is why it drives me crazy when my "ilk" keep citing that $32T figure. It's dishonest, because, as you point out, it doesn't offset the massive paying we're doing for private insurance and other healthcare costs. I would also add that we can't just go with a straight payroll tax, but rather it would have to be a straight tax on all income (with a fix or reduction for dividends currently taxed on the corporate side). Otherwise, someone wholly, or even substantially, earning income on Cap Gains is not paying the same as the employed person for the same coverage.

Either way, it won't be cheap, it won't be a low rate, and it must apply to everyone other than the poorest of the poor (unlike our current Fed Inc Tax).