Don Boudreaux, chairman of the economics department at George Mason University and the driver of Cafe Hayek, authored this Christian Science Monitor op-ed that addresses a fundamental problem with reforming the American health care finance system — the expectation of most Americans that health care is a basic human right and entitlement. Boudreaux explains the fallacy of that attitude:

But not everything that is highly desirable is a right. Most rights simply oblige us to respect one another’s freedoms; they do not oblige us to pay for others to exercise these freedoms. Respecting rights such as freedom of speech and of worship does not impose huge demands upon taxpayers.
Healthcare, although highly desirable, differs fundamentally from these rights. Because providing healthcare takes scarce resources, offering it free at the point of delivery would raise its cost and reduce its availability. [. . ]
Medicare, Medicaid, and tax-deductibility of employer-provided health insurance created a system in which patients at the point of delivery now pay only a small fraction of their medical bills out of pocket.
This situation leads to monstrously inefficient consumption of healthcare. Some people consume too much, while many others with more pressing needs do without.
Because the wasteful consumption caused by heavily subsidized access drives up healthcare costs, taxpayers must pay more and more to fund Medicare and Medicaid, while private insurers must continually raise premiums. The sad and perverse result is that increasing numbers of people go without health insurance.

Employer-based health insurance — which proliferated as a means to attract scarce labor during the wage and price controls of World War II — triggered the societal shift in attitude regarding payment of health care costs. Milton Friedman summed up the basic problem during an interview several years ago:

There are four ways in which you can spend money. You can spend your own money on yourself. When you do that, why then you really watch out what you’re doing, and you try to get the most for your money.
Then you can spend your own money on somebody else. For example, I buy a birthday present for someone. Well, then I’m not so careful about the content of the present, but I’m very careful about the cost.
Then, I can spend somebody else’s money on myself. And if I spend somebody else’s money on myself, then I’m sure going to have a good lunch!
Finally, I can spend somebody else’s money on somebody else. And if I spend somebody else’s money on somebody else, I’m not concerned about how much it is, and I’m not concerned about what I get. And that’s government. And that’s close to 40% of our national income.