With all the campaign promises being bandied about and politicians looking to buy as many votes as possible, it looks like free government health care is inevitable.

"Free" health care sounds like a noble goal, but with it come all the serious problems of any new entitlement. Perhaps most obvious is that with any entitlement, the government has to compel someone to provide it. They can either force doctors to work for free, which is essentially stealing, or they can seize tax dollars from you and me to pay for it, which is essentially stealing. Most likely they'll do both; forcing doctors to work at a "discount", and then seizing tax dollars to pay for the discounted medical care.

If the Republican-controlled Congress enacted President Bush's entire health care agenda, as many as 10 million people who lack health insurance would be covered at a cost of $102 billion over the next decade, according to his campaign aides. [...]

Kerry, for example, estimates his health care proposals would cover 27 million people at a 10-year cost of $653 billion. But that assumes $300 billion in "savings" that the Bush team says might prove elusive. Without the savings, the cost of the Kerry package jumps to nearly $1 billion. [that should read $1 Trillion]

Both candidates are pushing for taxpayer provided health care. At least with Bush you're more likely to get much needed tort reform to help lower medical costs. Kerry seems to be more than happy to enrich his trial lawyer buddies while soaking the evil, hated rich to pay for it.