Good nationalized health care? Yes, use dual currency.

Many conservatives are not relishing the possibility of socialized medicine. There is good cause for concern since most countries that have socialized medicine have problems with it. The main reason for this is that socialized medicine relies on tax revenue. A national health system IS expensive and in order to have a maintainable system costs must be kept to a minimum. Minimum cost=minimum care. Is there an alternative?

Yes, and the alternative is to nationalize health care and pay for it with a dual currency. Since we are using valueless fiat money now anyway, this system could work. Also, the private sector and the Government have accumulated significant assets, and this makes my system a bit more workable although we have printed enough money that we can't really back it with anything.

Here's the deal. You have two currencies, a private sector dollar and a government dollar. Codified, so that the rate of exchange is always 1:1. The Government nationalizes our health care system, puts doctors and nurses on a government wage scale based on current private sector salaries. The Government health care employees are paid in Government dollars which are exchanged 1:1 for private sector dollars. This precludes the use of tax money to fund the system.

In the private sector, the cost of a brick and mortar building is a liability, as is the medical equipment that's in it. (i.e. a private company has to charge enough to recoup their costs plus allow for entrepreneurial profit) In the Government's case the building and equipment become the asset that backs the government currency, so the government would have a vested interest in maintaining the buildings and constantly upgrading the equipment.

Dual currency would have other applicability as well. Let's say a city needed a new bridge. The City Government issues an RFP and awards the contract. The city pays the contractor in Government dollars which are exchangeable 1:1 for private sector dollars. The completed bridge then becomes the asset that helps back the Government currency. (rather than a tax liability)

In this manner, most taxes could be eliminated and there would be a great improvement in our infrastructure. Medical care would not suffer and business would no longer be burdened with skyrocketing health care costs. This is actually a workable plan, but things being what they are, I'm not getting my hopes up.