Okay guys, basic economics.
The supply of health care is what economists call "inelastic," meaning that the supply is more-or-less fixed: a large increase in demand calls forth only a very small increase in supply, meaning that prices have to increase drastically in order to equilibrate (balance-out) supply and demand. Why? Because there are only so many doctors, nurses, hospitals, clinics, hours in the day to treat people, etc. etc. It's very, very difficult to expand the supply for health care, since that essentially means sending people to school for at least 8 years, and that's not counting all the other shit people have to do in order to become MDs.
Anyway, government intervention via Medicare, Medicaid, tax breaks, mandates, etc. end up pushing the demand for health care upwards... but since the supply is relatively inelastic, the prices for health care have to skyrocket in order to call forth the additional supply necessary to supply the few people who otherwise would not have had access to health care.
If the government got out of the health care market, then health care prices would fall drastically. That is what economists call a "demand-side solution." Though this might prevent SOME people from getting necessary health care, for the most part it would eliminate unnecessary health care expenditures that people make because they don't face the cost of doing so (this is the problem with third-party insurance).
However, there is also a "supply-side solution:" remove all of regulations which are choking off health care supply. Licensure laws and regulations limiting where and how many hospitals are built are good examples of this.
Government plans such as Obamacare and single-payer systems throw fuel on the fire... They increase demand while doing NOTHING to expand supply. The result is even higher costs for health care, which either end up being paid through government (and thus higher taxes with a premium for all the inefficiencies found in government) OR they end up being paid indirectly by individuals, via waiting lists and so forth.
