If We Had A Functional Health System. . .

. . .then we would have no federal deficit, or so says Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel laureate (http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/u-economy-rx-fix-unemploymen...):

Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel laureate and author of several books including his latest "The Price of Inequality," argues that an economic catastrophe in the U.S. can be averted but lawmakers must be willing to open the government's purse strings and make the necessary investments in America's future.

A Congressional Budget Office report released this week found that U.S. debt could become double the size of the U.S. economy in 25 years if policymakers extend current tax rates and do not slash Medicare and Social Security spending. Stiglitz responded to the CBO projections as an "extrapolation based on if things don't change" and noted that fixing just one part of the current system — health care for example — would return the nation to "sound footing" without the need for spending cuts and tax increases.
"There are studies that if we had a health care system that was as sufficient as Europe's health care systems we'd have no deficit," he said.

My comment:

How long shall we go on with a federal deficit that will kill the American nation, when expending the political capital to reform our health system will eliminate the federal deficit?

Dr. Joe Jarvis