can you give me an example of something the government does cheaper than private industry?.......
I already did... the VA
The VA runs the largest integrated health-care system in the country, with more than 1,400 hospitals, clinics and nursing homes employing 14,800 doctors and 61,000 nurses. And by a number of measures, this government-managed health-care program--socialized medicine on a small scale--is beating the marketplace. For the sixth year in a row, VA hospitals last year scored higher than private facilities on the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index, based on patient surveys on the quality of care received. The VA scored 83 out of 100; private institutions, 71. Males 65 years and older receiving VA care had about a 40% lower risk of death than those enrolled in Medicare Advantage, whose care is provided through private health plans or HMOs, according to a study published in the April edition of Medical Care. Harvard University just gave the VA its Innovations in American Government Award for the agency's work in computerizing patient records.
And all that was achieved at a relatively low cost. In the past 10 years, the number of veterans receiving treatment from the VA has more than doubled, from 2.5 million to 5.3 million, but the agency has cared for them with 10,000 fewer employees. The VA's cost per patient has remained steady during the past 10 years. The cost of private care has jumped about 40% in that same period.
Read more:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1376238,00.html#ixzz23LwRhfx1
and to comment on the next paragraph before you do..
Vets still gripe about wading through red tape for treatment. Some 11,000 have been waiting 30 days or more for their first appointment.
Read more:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1376238,00.html#ixzz23LwdnXOT
I called Friday to set up an appointment(NON-VA, just your average hand-doc) to look at my hand(I injured it recently..)..my appointment is scheduled for 9/4. Not 30 days I know, but still a wait.
see, we already know how to do this kind of healthcare.. we've been doing the 'socialized' kind with the VA for years and have the bugs worked out.. but we've also been doing the 'market-pool' thing with Congress and other gov't workers.. and someone esle made the point that in all those other countries.. not a single 'austerity' measure from the Greeks,Germans and whoever on down have called for a change to our kind of health system.. this kind of system is proven to be better,cheaper and more efficient..
I would urge you to look at 'pro-healthcare' sites for a change to read what we already know..

if not to learn more about the benefit, then to better argue your point.. ya know, know your enemy kinda thing.. but IMO, looking at it with non-partisan eyes, you might be surprised to find you agree with many aspects of a single-payer type approach.. heck, (no snickering now-lol) check out the French idea..
When someone goes to see a doctor,
the national insurance program pays 70 percent of the bill. Most of the other 30 percent gets picked up by supplemental private insurance, which almost everyone has. It's affordable, and much of it gets paid for by a person's employer.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92419273
see, both private and public can be accomplished.. and the sicker you are, the less you pay.. but if you want a boob job, well that's what your private plan is for.. and since your regular health checks are covered, that boob-job plan is cheaper..
and they do it cheaper than we do..
It's expensive to provide this kind of health care and social support. France's health care system is one of the most expensive in the world.
But it is not as expensive as the U.S. system, which is the world's most costly. The United States spends about twice as much as France on health care. In 2005, U.S. spending came to $6,400 per person. In France, it was $3,300.
To fund universal health care in France, workers are required to pay about 21 percent of their income into the national health care system. Employers pick up a little more than half of that. (French employers say these high taxes constrain their ability to hire more people.)
Americans don't pay as much in taxes. Nonetheless, they end up paying more for health care when one adds in the costs of buying insurance and the higher out-of-pocket expenses for medicine, doctors and hospitals.
but it does have it's problems that we, being Americans

) ) could fix..
Last year, the national health system ran nearly $9 billion in debt. Although it is a smaller deficit than in previous years, it forced the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy to start charging patients more for some drugs, ambulance costs and other services. Debates over cost-cutting have become an expected part of the national dialogue on health care.
I'm just saying.. look around at the pros of this kind of plan..
http://reason.com/archives/2009/12/07/why-prefer-french-health-care
it might shock you how much you'd like it..
The graph above comes from Edward Cody's overview of the French health-care system.
Compared with the U.S. health-care system, the French system covers everyone, spends less, and sees its costs rise more slowly. It's a pretty impressive performance
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/09/lessons_from_the_french_health.html
if the idea is really about "spending less" and 'ensuring everyone can see a doctor without losing their house" and not "Hey, that's mine and I don't want you to have it (meaning..healthcare is the last item that separates the haves from the havenots since anyone can own a fur coat and/or a BMW these days).. then a 'France-like' private/public option.. or what we already give to our congressmen and other gov't workers is one of the best out there..