This is really like trying to kill a fly with a nuclear weapon, but try to follow the basic premise of 33386's argument.
The government can operate in the red indefinetly because they print our money. They have the power to tax and spend for the "general" welfare and Congress can use any means it finds necessary and proper to implement its policies. That means, Congress can hold a nation wide bake sale, borrow money from foreign governments, print more money or contract out to private companies and give tax incentives or other benefits in return. Private companies CANNOT do this. They can file bankruptcy and restructure, they can get bailed out by the government, or they can perpatrate a fraud and rip off all of its shareholders-- either way operating in the red is a finite proposition for any private company.
By defintion a private company cannot and will not be able to compete with a government agency that makes the rules, prints its own money and operates with no possibility of failure (especially when its operating expenses will be less by definition and it is charging less for care).
Our government has operated in the red for my entire lifetime and we just watched the deficit baloon to an amount so outrageously enormous, you would need 10 statisticians just to figure out the interest we owe. Private companies would be bankrupt, corporations dissolved and employees jobless if they tried to pull the same act.
If for no other reason, this whole government run healthcare mess will be nothing more than a state run monopoly which will cause privately run insurance outfits to fold. At the expense of the 75% of americans who can afford private care or are already getting free healthcare, the whole concept of the free market will be flushed down the toilet. Rationing health care, waiting 6 months to visit a dentist and the other culprits in the parade of horribles are coming to a doctors office near you.
Is it an accident that when people in Canada and Europe need an important operation they come here? Is it just dumb luck that when world leaders and celebrities from other countries need operations they come here? Momentarily, Im going to post an article from todays post that puts things in perspective.