Governments create/produce nothing, except bureaucracy so how can one think that government involvement in health care will provide competition let alone anything else worthwhile. As far our youth receiving proper nutrition during their school years, why is that a responsibility of the citizens of this country to pay for that, but rather the parent, guadrians (or who ever is responsible) for raising these children? If one is really concerned about our youth competing in this world then the concern should be with a good education, not the public (i.e. government) education that is provided now, but an education that is well grounded in english, math, sciences and history (not the revisionist version).

Change for the sake of change is not actually anything evolutionary or revolutionary.

Recently, John, Obama made the remark that one option to control medical care expenses was to decide what medical care made economic sense. This was in the context of the $300 Billion spent each year on Medicare of which about $100 Billion was spent on those in advanced old age. In other words, if the patient is old the government should consider the Eskimo Ice Floe option of putting grandma on the ice and waving bye bye. Sure, why not? Besides Nana most likely isn't paying taxes and is a burden on Social Security. Bye, bye Nana. Ah, but that could never happen you say. Really? Check what actually happens in the UK, Canada and EU's wonderful "Free" universal healthcare systems. Rationing of healthcare services, refusal of expensive but life saving drugs, months long waits to see a GP. Need an MRI or CT-scan? In the UK they hope to get the wait down to 16 weeks. Have prostate cancer and live in Canada? John, move to the USA and increase your chances of living by one third because in the USA you can get the life saving drugs Canada chooses not to provide because of expense. How much is a man's life worth? Apparently not as much as the cost of the life saving drug in Canada. Bye, bye son, brother, father, husband, grandfather but at least you had "free" healthcare.

Why are US health costs so high, John? You say due to lack of competition. Pardon me but I believe there are hundreds if not thousands of health insurance providers in the USA and all in competition with each other. That dog won't hunt.

How about the costs incurred because doctors have to do every possible medical test to protect themselves from career ending malpractice law suits? Billions and billions of dollars. How about the costs incurred with complying with endless government directives? More billions of dollars. How about the costs to hospitals for providing health care to illegal aliens? Yet more billions of dollars. Some one has to pay those costs. That some one is you if you go to a doctor, enter a hospital or buy health insurance. In the real world as opposed to the Obama free government healthcare fantasy world those costs will not go away. Oh, but everyone will be required to have and pay a reasonable low cost for government health insurance so cost will go down. Right. And we will all be eating Rainbow soup. Name just one government program that isn't over budget, drowning in wasteful red tape, bloated with bureaucrats and isn't in a never ending quest for more money. Just one.

Let's do remember our young people, the future of this nation, and let's try to leave them a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to freedom. That nation was crafted by capitalism (now under assault), the free market (also under assault) and freedom of the individual (perhaps the most assaulted of all) and Democracy. Portents for the future are not bright are they.

Yes, what could go wrong with the federal government making decisions on medical coverage?

I'm not sure how you define the industrialized world, but Russia, China and eastern Europe are pretty industrialized these days, and their IMR is higher than our own.