> common pool was taken by the usual flies who feast on any pile, as long as they can get themselves in the position to manage the pile.

Oh! I like you.
Even more cynical than myself.
And exactly correct.

>Now why would it be better with this whole rich layer of middlemen middlepersons intermediareis is beyond me.

Correct answer to anybody using logic.

>What I was hoping for, those years ago when the whole O'care circus started, was that the inefficient bureaucracy would create some equally inefficient but free system of clinics (new or contracted) which would be pretty much free or at fixed prices

Agreed.
If such a system were also freed from the lawsuit lottery that plagues healthcare costs, it would make a big difference.

That would of course, require some brave soul to champion "Second Rate" healthcare.

Second Rate healthcare of very low cost clinics would remove some burden from emergency rooms treating sniffles.
It would also remove the fear of the middle class of losing coverage when changing jobs, unemployment etc.

A clinic offering $20 visits with a nurse practitioner and cheap access to generic medicines would serve our poor citizens well.
If somebody is too indigent to pay $20 - sign a form stating you are too poor to pay $20.
Then again, I see beggars on street corners here in Austin drinking Starbucks coffee... maybe $20 is not out of reach for them.

Instantly, we would not have one un-covered soul in the whole country.

Dragan, you have my vote for president.