>>Regardless of whether this plan is provided by a private or public entity, the forced purchase of a product goes against the very essence of private property rights.

Here is a closed question for you: how will you solve the $40T (and growing) Medicare hole? I'm asking you how to fix the problem, not the blame. Remember that Medicare recipients are a significant and growing electorate that is unlikely to be so offended by "forced" contributions from people like you to cover the $40T.

As for public versus private: consider that 70% of US hospitals are not-for-profit, not counting VA or state-owned facilities. Generally these have religious affiliation with socialistic tendencies and a policy of reinvestment rather than scooping-out for dividends. Even so, and despite 50M US residents having minimal access to care, your healthcare costs are still by far the highest per capita and as a percentage of GDP except for East Timor- and STILL you end up with a $40T deficit. Forget knocking holes in whatever anybody else says: can the $ be redistributed to fend off the pending disaster and if so, how? Or what other real-life solution can you suggest, since anti-government sloganeering obviously won't solve the issue and the insurers will fight any "forced" contributions from themselves even though their own prices are significantly more than the Medicare levy. Perhaps you can pass Medicare in its current state over to the private insurers to fix. ;-)