Why is it that "one-size fits all" never really fits at all?

In this week's Newsweek, Sen. Ted Kennedy makes a passionate appeal for universal health care coverage in the United States. His mantra has always been that health care should be a right and not a privilege.

Admirable, yes.

However, in Sen. Kennedy's mind (or at least for this commentary in Newsweek), universal means that everyone has the same medical coverage that he had through his plane crash and now his current battle with brain cancer. Unfortunately, health care, like any other good or service, is a finite and constrained by money, time, people, and physical space (well. . .um. . . duh). Can we really expect everyone to get the same level of care as a prominent Senator or even a sitting President? Is this really what Sen. Kennedy means by "universal"?

Well. . .probably not.

So without further adieu here is my current question, what level of"universal" is ideal for our society? (That's right Jeffy, I am calling you out--where have you been man? Hopefully, walking the halls of Congress this minute lobbying for this issue or just having a nice relaxing summer, whatever;-).

Instead of debating what is actually in front of Congress right now (which is some 1,000 page document written in incomprehensible lawyer-eze). Let us play the role of the benevolent social planner and design a hypothetical structure to distribute health care (that sounds fun, right?). Others following this blog can play along at home as well.

To do this, we should think about what are the top three things we would like out of our health care system. Widespread coverage, strong incentives for innovation, high quality of care, effective utilization and treatment, low costs, etc. To achieve these goals we must think about what we would be willing to give up. For instance, less high quality care facilities for the sake of widespread coverage and usage or something along those line.

So tell me what you think, and then I will respond with my grand scheme to save our health care system (man, it is too bad that those bozos on the hill are not reading this blog--maybe we should twitter our final results or something).

Happy Social Planning! Hope to see a post soon.