I hadn't thought about it, but the idea of not-for-profit catastrophic healthcare from the government is very attractive.  However, I don't see how you make that work.  Would there be a different health care system once the costs got too high?  Seems like it would in fact have to be insurance.  But I still see advantages with that.

If I could rest assured that, no matter how high the bills, the government would pay for everything past a certain point,  I'd have no interest whatsoever in buying health insurance.   Wonder how that would affect the for-profit companies?