I just saw the interview, and frankly, Rep. Weiner doesn't know what he is talking about.  Before Medicare, the government actually had a health program that took care of elderly folks who were below the poverty line.  It was called Kerr-Mills. 

Medicare has over 150,000 pages of regulation as well.  Nearly every year, the co-pay that beneficiers have to pay keeps going up.  The best thing to do about Medicare is to continue paying, and giving those young people the choice of opting out, and taking responsbility for their own medical coverage.  It was a nice experiment, but it has failed miserably. 

Oh, BTW, when did we ever have a free market in health care?  I would really like to know. 

Just to add in my completely irrelevant response to bakadude's post... The Scriptures include bats in the unclean fowls category in Leviticus 11. If you are an atheist or other religion, bats could be anything you choose I suppose, but if you believe in the Scriptures, then there is no doubt as to their classification. I did like the rest of your post though.

 Ron Paul's answer to the question if he is a Republican or Libertarian -- which he said "yes" -- is very funny. Yes is an irrelevant answer. But it was the correct answer although irrelevant. A bat is neither bird nor beast. Or vice versa, a bat is either a bird or beast.

But on the issue of healthcare, there is no free market. The Republicans knew this. Congressman Paul knew this. GOP's supporters are giants of the healthcare industry in this country that control the market. Like the recommendation of Adam Smith who was the father of the free market system, the controlled market must be government regulated.  It is an irresponsible government to leave the consumers at the mercy of vultures.