What's wrong with universal health care?

i just watched sicko the other day. it was actually a pretty good movie and makes a good point for universal health care, comparing us to some other countries who have more "socialized medicine." i know that some of the basic arguments are that the quality of medical care will suffer or that doctors' will be more regulated and get less pay. but the movie points out that our quality of medical care is already at one of the bottom rungs and among industrialized countries, we have the lowest life expectancy, the highest infant mortality, the highest number of people who don't have access to care, etc. etc. supposedly, some of the homeless in these other countries have higher life expectancies than the average american. and there's a government employed doc on there who has a fancy car, million dollar home...obviously not suffering.

as a doc, it's hard for me to argue against having health care for everyone, but i do have to admit that my knowledge of the area is not that sophisticated. so tell me, what are the biggest arguments against a nationalized health care system? one funny point that's brought up is that there is one place where there is universal health care in america, and that's at guantanamo bay, cuba. the movie basically reiterated what my buddy saw when he was deployed there...that these known terrorists...major major bad guys, get better care than most americans. there is one provider for every 4 detainees! they have all sorts of specialists taking care of them. we bend over backwards to make sure they are medically taken care of. why don't we do this for everyone else?

the military is prolly as socialized as it gets when it comes to health care. in theater it's a little different, but back at home, i can order an test i want, any xray, ct scan, mri, pet scan, you name it. i can pretty much get any drug i want to try, any lab or study i think i may need. and of course, my patients don't pay a dime. and i'm not even specialty trained! true the board certified docs get paid less than they would in the real world (although i get paid way way more than my resident counterparts...i'm def not looking forward to that cut in pay), but the all def live comfortably.

just as i'm thinking it's a great though, there comes the occassional snag and you begin to see the bureaucracy and short-sightedness of a system that has no competition. i still have barely touched all that stuff i just got, you know, the over $20k of brand new computer equipment (3 ibm laptops, 10 hp ipaqs, and various accessories for 2 ppl) all for ONE software program to maintain electronic records. a complete waste when the program could have simply been added to existing computers. retarded!

obviously, the powers that be really do not understand what the situation is like for many of the providers out here. either that, or the contractors are promising goods that they can't deliver. i don't know. but when there's only one system around, one mistake is a big and costly one.