I hope someday someone will spill the beans and tell us how big the percentage of free credit users is/was of the total usage. It has to be sizeable.

Osmo Soininvaara?

I fail to understand how that fixes the big disparity: democrats have complex policy solutions to problems. Populists are always offering easy solutions to complex problems, and no one seems to hold them accountable when these solutions fail. I don't see you offering a solution to this.

That is not a bad rendition, but for most star studded i have to say that is hard to beat: youtu.be/Tpr_IDKVv9k?...

But i agree with the original post, because there is absolutely no additional value created by _private_ insurance. Your argument seems to omit that word, which is kinda important.

Also, (almost) no one who is raging against the insurance companies is looking to replace the current system with out of pocket paying, it is always about the government taking over as the pooling the costs. Isn't this whole thread a strawman argument?

Forprofit insurers as the only option make the US healthcare system dysfunctional. In most of the developed world the public sector directly acting as the backstop insurer (pooling the whole nation under their plan) is a much better system. Not perfect, but better.